The Third Year
by Miss Starfire
Summary: SEQUEL TO THE SECOND YEAR. Pepper's life is about to get that much more complicated after some shocking news she receives, and never will she be more grateful to have a retired jock and a young genius around. Story 5 of 8 of The Last Chronicles.
1. Prologue

**Summary:** SEQUEL TO THE SECOND YEAR. Pepper's life is about to get that much more complicated after some shocking news she receives, and never before will she be more grateful to have a retired jock and a young genius around.

**Standard disclaimer for all my stories**: My stories are graphic, angsty, frustrating, filled with cliffhangers, drama and foul language. Read at your own risk – medical issues and subsequent bills are not covered by yours truly ;) If you don't like, please don't read. I appreciate reviews and constructive feedback but if you cannot stand the plot, save yourself and me some time and walk away. You don't have to love all IMAA stories :) I don't own IMAA. My stories are better viewed by using the "half screen" option of FFNET

_**THIS IS A SEQUEL TO THE SECOND YEAR. Start with The Last Month, then The Last Summer, then The First Year, and just read your way here.**_

_**READ THOSE FIRST OR BE FOREVER CONFUSED!**_

* * *

><p><span><strong>The Third Year<strong>

**Prologue**

Even though her heart was beating in her throat at the shock, and tears were already streaming down her cheeks, Pepper's face was as stoic as ever as she listened to Dr. Ross. His words were slow and highly enunciated, as she needed them to be at the moment, to follow along with the diagnosis he was giving her. Never, in a million years, would she have imagined that she would be spending her twentieth birthday listening to the most shocking news she had ever received in her entire life, but yet here she was.

She swallowed hard and licked her lips. A second after Dr. Ross finished speaking, he handed her a tissue. Pepper nodded her thanks to the man and made quick use of the offer. She used one of the corners of the tissue to wipe some of her tears from her face and then left the rest untouched and on her lap. She knew the doctor was expecting her to speak now, but it appeared as if all the words she had ever learned throughout her life had just suddenly deserted her.

What should she ask? Should she even ask a question or just make a statement? What would be the most appropriate response to what she had just heard would happen to her?

She sniffled, hung her head and then used the tissue to lightly blow her nose. Dr. Ross knew that this was very difficult for her – it would be for anyone in her situation – so he gave her all the time in the world she needed to regain her senses. After a couple of minutes of silence between them, Pepper finally found her voice again, stared at the doctor's concerned face and spoke up.

"How much longer?"

"A few months."

"What's a few months?"

"Six… maybe seven."

Pepper nodded soundlessly and looked at her lap again. She inhaled and exhaled slowly and deeply, and then, after another long silence, she finally looked up at him with a more determined look.

"I guess we should run the other tests that you recommended, then?"

"Perhaps, but at this point it'd just be procedural and nothing more. I understand you have some reservations about this coming out, so I suggest that if you do want the other analyses done, we do so under a different name again."

"I'd appreciate that," the redhead nodded. "My dad… he's due to the States next month. I'd like to tell him in person and not have him find out by the news."

"I understand. There are some options for treatment if you'd like," Dr. Ross said and handed her a card. "And while I'd love to have you under my care again, Miss Potts, I think it's best if I refer you to a specialist – a colleague of mine."

Pepper grabbed the card in her shaky hand, stared at it for a second and then put it away in her jeans pocket. She then fidgeted with the hem of her blouse and sighed loudly.

"I'll think about it. I'm not sure if I even want to proceed with the options."

"Of course," Dr. Ross said. "And I know this is the last thing you want to do, but I think you should tell your friends and family as soon as possible. Having their support will make a world of difference, especially towards the end."

"I know," she whispered and honestly agreed, but she was not sure she was ready to deal with the reactions of everyone if she was yet to deal with her own. "I will."

"Pending further test results, I want you to start taking these," Dr. Ross said as he opened the top drawer of his desk, took out a small plastic bottle and handed it to the redhead. Just as before, Pepper grabbed the item that was being handed to her and, this time, she dug it inside her purse. "Other than that, there's nothing else I have for you for now."

"Thank you for doing this for me on such short notice, Dr. Ross," Pepper said and then slowly stood up from the chair she was in. She extended a hand to the doctor and the medic returned the handshake with a grim smile and a frown of concern.

"Any time, Miss Potts. Let me know what you decide to do, alright? You have my direct line."

"Yes, thanks, again," the ginger said with a nod. She then retracted her hand from his, turned around in place, and all but dragged her feet on her way out from the doctor's private office, through the hall and into the parking lot of the hospital. Seconds later, she found herself in front of her _Stark Bike_, thinking hard about where to go since she did not want to go back to campus just yet.

_Now what?_

The tears began flowing again.

She had nowhere else to go other than her dorm room or Roberta's home, but right now she needed to be alone, even though she felt like she should be talking about her predicament with someone that would listen to her. The truth was that she had not had anyone to speak to for a while since Scott had left her, and now that she thought about it more, it was not that she needed to talk to someone that could actually talk back to her; she just needed someone who would let her talk.

With that thought in mind, Pepper got on her _Stark Bike_, started it and drove to Rosedale & Rosehill Cemetery in Jersey.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: August**

"How long have you known?"

Tony asked the only question he could put together after hearing the brunette's shocking words. This news he had not expected, and as many times before, his life was about to change yet again.

"I mean," he amended his inquiry. "How come this is the first I'm hearing of it? This is not something that just happens overnight."

Maya shrugged, her fingers playing with her fork, which she was yet to use to eat anything on her plate. She had suggested for the two of them to go eat out at a nice restaurant for dinner, and they had done so even though Tony had been exhausted after a long board meeting with SI. He had, albeit reluctantly, finally accepted after she had told them that it was very important for them to meet because they 'needed to talk.'

"I've known for a while, but I didn't get the official notification until last week. I'm due there in three days, so I need to start getting ready now."

Tony looked away from her to gather his thoughts. He knew he should have been feeling sadness, disappointment, or maybe even relief of some sort, but he was afraid to show any emotion lest this was a way for Maya to coerce him into getting married right now before she left.

Even though _he_ had brought it up that night during Scott Summers's birthday party, in the end, they had not gone through with getting married then and there. He had gotten cold feet at the last minute, and he had ended up making it up to her with sex that night. Needless to say, the situation had been rather awkward between them after the failed wedding attempt, and the brunette had been highly disappointed that her plan had not worked as well as she had intended it to. Moreover, her time was now up; her employer had called her back. Immediately and without room for discussion, she was to report to headquarters before midweek.

And so was her stepfather, for that matter.

"What…" Tony gulped, afraid of the response. "What does that mean for us?"

Maya gave him a sad smile and then looked at her engagement ring. She wiggled her finger to make the diamond shine against the dim lights of the restaurant before she finally took it off. She held it in between her fingertips, glanced at it with disappointment, and then left it on the table by Tony's left hand.

"I guess there is no _us_, anymore. Not that there ever really was an _us_, anyway."

And just like that.

They had finally broken up.

Tony eyed the ring he did not even want to touch so as to not incite her to take her words back. All he could do was swallow hard before staring at her with an incredulous look on his face.

"That's it?"

Maya smirked.

"Yes, that's it. This is a great opportunity for me and I can't let it pass. I'm sure you understand how important it is to me and my research as an undergrad that I spend the next year in the UK, right? I… I might even stay there after it."

"I do. I do understand, it's just… after all this time and effort… you… you're just gonna leave?" he really hoped she did not think he was asking her to stay, change her mind or adjust her plans. He just wanted to make sure his eyes and ears were not deceiving him.

Maya scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Isn't that what Pepper did to you, too? How is that unexpected in our case? You never loved me like you loved her. Why wouldn't it be easier for me to leave you than it was for her? Are you really THAT surprised?"

She was not trying to be a bitch about the similarity of the two situations, but she needed for him to believe her that she was indeed leaving and breaking up with him so that she could go back to the apartment and start packing up without interruption from him. Her life depended on it.

"I," Tony shook his head and discreetly pinched his leg under the table to make sure he was not dreaming. "I guess so."

Maya exhaled deeply through her nose and looked left and right, not sure how to call the conversation to an end. Tony was still lost in his thoughts and remained as such for a few more minutes until he finally cleared his throat and looked at her again.

"Mae, would you believe me if I said that I'm really sorry for putting you through so much crap these past two years? I… I can't believe you stuck with me for so long when… when all this time I… well… you know."

Maya chuckled. "I actually_ do_ believe you, and I'm glad that you at least recognize that dating you, to be honest, _sucked_."

Tony snickered humorlessly. "Can't deny that. I'm… I'm a horrible boyfriend… and fiancé, too, apparently," he grimaced.

"The worst ever," she said, but then grabbed one of his hands in hers and gave it a light squeeze. "But only because you weren't with the girl you really love. I… it sucks for me, but it's the truth."

"You mean the one that's getting married to another man next month?" Tony said bitterly and looked down at their joined hands. "You mean the one that asked me to give her away on her wedding day when she must know that I haven't stopped thinking about her every day, even though I was with you?"

"The one that probably still thinks about you every day, too," Maya said, truly feeling remorseful for keeping them apart for her selfish reasons. Her initial feelings for him had been honest, but after her stepfather had gotten her involved in the issue she presently had, all of her motives for being with Tony had changed. Yet, she knew that what she had done for the past year and a half had been for her sake and for her family's, and even if she was about to go back to her employer, virtually empty-handed, she would at least not put the ginger and the blue-eyed boy in further danger or through more pain.

Or so she hoped.

"Are you going to say goodbye to her? You're supposed to be her maid of honor."

"I'll let her know. I'm sure she can find someone else for it," she told the inventor even though, courtesy of her acquaintance with the jock, she was very aware that Scott had broken up the engagement with the redhead, two months ago.

"Well," Tony began and slowly pulled his hand away from hers, feeling a weight being removed from his chest, back and shoulders as he did. "I guess that's it, then."

The two of them remained quiet for a while, staring at everything except the other. And when Tony finally called on the waiter to bring the check to them, all the brunette could do was nod.

xxxXXXxxx

Living by himself was odd to him. Despite his rocky and unstable life, he had never really lived on his own before. He had lived with his father until he had been presumed dead. He had then lived with the Rhodes until his father came back. Then, he had lived with Pepper for a year, and Maya had moved in with him just a week after Pepper had moved out. The brunette had left only two days ago, and even if he was relieved that he no longer had to deal with her and pretend he was developing feelings for her, he still felt like a lonely, sorry son of a bitch.

_Maybe I should get a dog_, he thought as he watched his alarm clock mocking him for being awake at three AM. He had recently renewed his lease again for two more years, so he knew that he would have to live with himself alone in this apartment for quite a while. He also knew that, now that he was by himself, he could have easily moved to the penthouse at Stark Solutions and just live there. For some reason, however, he had not been able to make himself abandon the place he had shared with the redhead. The box of stuff she had sent back to him during Christmas was still in what used to be her closet, and despite how pathetic it seemed, he sometimes looked through the contents of the box and remembered the good memories the items brought to him when he stared and held them in his hands.

_Pepper_, he thought with ache and then readjusted his position on the bed to lay on his right side to stare at the empty space next to him; the one that she used to be on more times than he could count. Their lives together sometimes seemed so dream-like to him, but that did not mean that they were not as real to him as they had actually been when they had occurred – especially this moment. Especially right now.

Despite Maya Hansen having used Pepper's spot on the bed for the past year, to Tony, that side _still_ belonged to the ginger, as did the room that was still unused across the hall. Many times, the brunette had tried to convert that room to a gym or a study, or anything else other than a wasted spare room, but he had never even let her go inside long enough to change anything in it. In his heart, that room still belonged to Pepper, and even if she were to walk down the aisle with Scott in three weeks or so, that room would always be hers in his mind and soul.

"I miss you," he whispered to the emptiness of his dark room as his hand slid over the empty side of the bed, and it was now that he realized why he had not let go of Maya all this time even though he never seriously felt anything for her: loneliness. It had all been due to loneliness.

He had suspected that not wanting to be alone had been the main reason why he had sucked it up and stuck with Maya for so long, but it was not until this very moment that he saw what loneliness did to him: it made him yearn for Pepper, more than he already did every time he opened his eyes and another day went by. With Maya around, he at least had someone to yell at, distract himself with, even pretend that he loved, and while Pepper had always been in the back of his mind, his arguments with Maya had helped him survive the days and the nights.

How would he survive his days and nights now? How would he ever sleep again? Perhaps renewing that lease had not been such a good idea after all.

He closed his eyes despite not feeling any tiredness and hoped sleep would suddenly come to him. He needed to be wide awake and rested tomorrow at the office. He had been barely scraping by at work for months now, and in spite of the numbers on the balance sheet showing he was doing OK, he knew that if he did not take it seriously and started perfecting and or creating new inventions, it would not be long until the company that he and Pepper had worked so hard to attain and maintain would collapse under its own grandiosity.

He had come to that realization last night, when he had honestly considered selling the company to Stark International. He had even called his father about it and, after a long discussion, Howard had convinced his son to give it another try.

"_You'd be throwing away all those nights you and Pepper spent getting things together. You'd be throwing away her efforts to help you, Son."_

He knew he had been a jerk, an asshole, a lying prick and even a Class-A douchebag to the redhead all throughout the last year. But one thing he did not want her to label him as would be an _ungrateful_ bastard. Hell, he may even take the bastard title in stride, but ungrateful he could not do so because it did not only insult him but it also, in some way, insulted what they had been; what they had accomplished together. He was _not_ ungrateful for anything she had done for him and for the establishment of his company, regardless that it was probably what he appeared to be right now. As such, if keeping Stark Solutions from closing down was the only way to somehow send that sign to her that he was here because she had believed in him, then he would do so. He would get up tomorrow – or in a few hours, in fact – and work, work and work until the sun went down. He would then come home, sleep, and then get up and do the same the next day and the next, nonstop, until he was certain that his company came out of the hole no one but him and his father knew it was in.

He would do it. For her. Just as everything else he had already done; even if that meant calling her tomorrow to tell her that he would most definitely walk her down to aisle to Scott with the biggest smile on the planet plastered on his face, if that made her happy and if it made her forgive him; if it allowed him to see her at least once more. At this point, he really had nothing else to lose. His heart was already broken beyond repair and, with Maya gone, there was no more pretending that was needed of him; there was no more need for his pride to dictate his actions or words.

_But first I have to apologize to her. __**Really**__ apologize._

He exhaled loudly, readjusted his position in the bed, and began to relax, sleep finally finding him. But it was at that exact moment that his pod rang, and he got the most frightening phone call he had ever received in his entire life.

xxxXXXxxx

He pressed the center of his suit to retract it into the backpack form and ran toward the entrance of the emergency room. He had barely had any time to put on whatever clothes he had left on the floor, and by the time Dr. Ross had hung up the call, the inventor had already exited the parking lot of his apartment complex faster than what was allowed for safety. He had ignored every warning the suit had given him concerning his racing vital signs on his way here, his only concern at the time being arriving at the hospital as fast as he could.

He essentially pushed open the automatic doors and made a beeline for the reception desk that was currently being handled by one elder-looking nurse who had a face that reeked of how much she hated working the graveyard shift. He hardly even stopped at the desk; his hands held him steady against the edge of the counter as he readied himself to rush towards whatever direction he was pointed to go as fast as his words were coming out of his mouth right now.

"Potts! Pepper Potts! Where is she?"

The woman looked up from her paperwork and raised a single eyebrow at the boy, not at all feeling the sense of urgency the inventor was trying to convey to her.

"Who are you?"

"Family," he said as he took in deep breaths. "Where is she?"

"I'm afraid I'll need a little bit more information than that to release her current location."

"Dammit!" Tony stood up straight and slammed his fists against the counter. "Don't you know who I am?" he pointed at his face. He really did not have time to be wasting with this woman. Dr. Ross had not released much information about Pepper's condition over the phone either, claiming that it was best if the genius came down to the hospital himself to be told what was happening to her.

_"The matter is sensitive, Mr. Stark. It's best if I tell you in person."_

"Where is Pepper?" Tony repeated and the nurse sighed in exasperation.

"Sir, I need you to calm down or I won't let you see anybody."

"The hell you will," he said. "I'm Tony Stark and I'm–"

"He's Miss Potts' emergency contact and medical proxy," Dr. Ross said from behind the inventor. Tony immediately turned around to face the doctor, but not before he glared at the shocked woman who he could not believe did not know who he was. Yes, he looked tired, probably had dark circles under his eyes and his clothes were perhaps wrinkled beyond wearable status, but that did not mean his face was unrecognizable for it.

"Where is she? Is she OK?" Tony frantically asked and had to stop himself from shaking the doctor by the shoulders. "Can I see her?"

"Walk with me, Mr. Stark. Let's have a talk."

Tony groaned inwardly but followed the doctor, nonetheless; as he was his only ticket to finding out what was wrong with his girl. He spared another glare at the still shock-ridden woman at the counter and then returned his attention to the path the doctor was leading them. Dr. Ross swiped his ID on the reader to unlock the main door to the emergency care rooms and, seconds later, the inventor found himself inside the dreaded hall.

The sounds of moaning and cries of pain gave him shivers, and for a moment he wondered if he had walked into a place of recovering health or a last stop before the people in here left this world. The cemetery _was_ still next door to this hospital, in fact, and if he did not know it was sacrilegious to blow up the damned place so that he would not have to see it, he would have done so already, probably just so that Pepper did not feel _tempted_ to end up next door in it.

"I apologize for scaring you, Mr. Stark."

"Tony," the billionaire said. "Please, call me: Tony."

Might as well add the doctor to his Christmas card list this year, with how long he had known him and how many times he had met up with the man since then.

"Tony," the man repeated with a smile. "Like I said, I'm sorry for making you rush over here, but at the time Miss Potts called me and told me what was happening to her, I thought the matter was much more severe."

"So, she's OK now?"

"Yes, she's going to be fine," the doctor responded and Tony gave himself a moment to stop, bend over, hold his weight on his knee with his left hand and try to calm down his rapidly beating heart with his right hand on his chest.

"Jeez," the genius mumbled. "I thought I was going to have a heart attack," he added and then chuckled in relief.

"Good thing you're at a hospital, huh?"

"Guess so," Tony replied as he straightened his back and exhaled. "So, is she good to go home?"

"She is," Dr. Ross began. "Although, and I apologize in advance if this is too much intrusion on my part, but I think that in her current condition, Miss Potts shouldn't be living by herself."

"What do you mean?" Tony frowned.

"Well, I gathered from her change of address that you two no longer live together?"

Tony shook his head and the doctor nodded.

"I figured that much. But, like said, it's best for her to be with family for the next few months. It'll make this so much easier on her, at least until it's all over."

_All over?_ Tony panicked again, yet the words he wanted to say did not leave his mouth fast enough before the doctor continued his statement.

"Look," he took out a few pamphlets from his coat and handed them to the inventor. "Give these to her. She knows what to look for now, and there's a lot more information about her condition in these. I honestly didn't expect these to happen so soon or at all, but the issue is not unheard of. It's just extremely rare. She's going to be alright, though."

Tony did not even look at the pamphlets but he still grabbed them with a dumb nod.

"OK. Where is she?"

"Room 115."

"OK," he gulped. "Thanks, Doc."

"You're welcome, Tony," the man said, patted him on the back, and then turned around to leave the blue-eyed boy standing alone in the hall.

Tony took a moment to compose himself. He then looked to his right to see that the room in question was just a few feet away from him, but he could not make himself move towards the door. He had rushed here without actually thinking what his presence would do to the ginger. It was very likely that Scott was inside the room with her, and he knew that neither of them would be happy to see him there at all.

Then again, if Scott were here right now, there would have been no need for Dr. Ross to contact him in the first place. The genius had not been aware that he was still Pepper's emergency contact and medical proxy, but it did not surprise him that she had not thought about changing that after everything that had happened. In fact, she was still _his_ emergency contact and medical proxy, too, as he had not taken the time to update the records either. Not that he truly wanted to, anyway.

_I should just leave_, he thought, but then the doctor's words returned to him.

"_Although, and I apologize in advance if this is too much intrusion on my part, but I think that in her current condition, Miss Potts shouldn't be living by herself."_

Tony frowned. Pepper did live by herself at her dorm room at ESU, but Scott was always nearby. For all practical purposes, she was not really living alone. Their addresses may have been different, but he knew for a fact that the jock had a key to Pepper's dorm room, even if it was against the campus's rules.

_Technically, she's not alone, unless…_

Tony stared down at the pamphlets in his right hand. He held all three of them, all with different titles on the front page and, once his eyes actually focused enough to read the words, he thought he was actually going to have that heart attack he had just joked about.

The title on the first pamphlet read: BRAXTON-HICKS CONTRACTIONS: ALL YOU EVER NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THEM. The title of the second information brochure read: THE FIRST THREE MONTHS AND WHAT TO EXPECT. And, finally, the last title he read reinforced what the two others had already made him understand: PREGNANCY AND THE SINGLE MOM: A GUIDE.

_Pepper, she's… _

His eyes glued to the door to room 115.

_Pepper's pregnant_.

xxxXXXxxx

She felt so silly now for panicking over nothing, but she also felt shocked that she had already grown attached to the life growing inside of her. It had not even been two weeks since she had been told that she was with child, and even if at first she had freaked out about having the baby of a man that had left her – a man that was also a mutant – at the first sign of potentially losing her baby, she had realized how much she already loved it even before she knew what it was going to be.

_Boy or girl, mutant or no mutant, this baby is still mine._

Pepper had already been given the all-clear to leave the hospital about half an hour ago, but after being brought over here by the ambulance and waking up half of the campus with the commotion, she was not looking forward to going back just now. Her pregnancy had not been announced yet, and since the jock had not been seen around since his birthday party on the premises, she knew that showing that she was expecting would only make matters worse for her and for him.

_He doesn't even know yet. I need to call him, soon._

What for, she was not entirely sure.

She was not going to ask him to get together with her again – she was not going to let a baby force them to marry or date just because it was 'the right thing to do.' She was also not going to ask him to give the baby his last name – unless he wanted to. And she was also not going to ask him for support – she did not need the help, anyhow. So, with no actual reason needed to call him, why did she want to tell him, anyway?

Perhaps it was the fact that, deep inside of her, she wanted him to know that there was a baby carrying his genes, and that she planned to give birth to it and keep it, if for no other reason than to prevent her past from repeating. Her own father, whomever he was and wherever he was today, had not cared enough to get to know her, give her his last name, or even be there for her birth, for all she knew. She did not want her baby to have the same future that she had, and she doubted Scott would turn out to be that kind of a man. He struck her more as the type of man that would rather split holidays to see his kid rather than not acknowledge the existence of it at all.

What truly worried her, however, was the fact that Scott and Jean Grey had begun dating already. It appeared that he had moved on faster than she thought he would, but she really could not blame him for it since she had never truly moved on from loving her boy genius; her boy genius who was probably already married, perhaps at the same moment she had been told by Dr. Ross that she was going to be a mom.

She had not heard from Maya in weeks; yet, she did not blame her for it either. Pepper had politely declined via e-mail her request to be her maid of honor a few days after Scott's birthday party, despite her believing, at some point, that her help would no longer be needed anymore. She had been mistaken, of course, but that did not mean that she wanted to be there to see Tony say 'I do' to the brunette.

That was just issue #1.

_My dad's gonna be so disappointed_, she thought with despondency.

Her father's reaction to her unplanned pregnancy was another issue that kept her up at night, more than telling Scott the news did. Virgil Potts had finally been given an honorable discharge order and a one-way ticket to retirement – albeit four months earlier than he had expected – but he was not allowed to leave the Middle East just yet until everything else was straightened out with his departure from the government forces. He would be returning to the States by the middle of September, and she was both terribly scared and happy about it all at once.

She sighed loudly, closed her eyes and then rested her neck and back against the inclined bed. She took in a deep breath that actually ended in a yawn, and when she was about to grab her pod to call a taxi, she heard an almost reluctant knock on the door before it slowly began to open. She did not even bother to open her eyes, chuckled, and then waved her hand in the direction of the door.

"Yes, Dr. Ross, I know, I know. I need to leave. I was about to call a taxi. I'll be out of your hair in no time."

"I can give you a ride home."

His voice made her eyes snap open, her head straighten out and her mouth hit the floor. She could not believe what she was seeing. She just could NOT believe it at all.

Before her stood Tony Stark, looking somewhere between shy and confused and rubbing the back of his neck with his left hand. In his right hand, he held some papers she could not discern from her current position on the bed, and he stared at everything except at her.

_Oh, crap! What is he doing here? What is HE doing HERE?_

Then it hit her like a ton of bricks. He was still her primary contact for cases like this. He was still in charge of making medical decisions on her behalf in case she could no longer make those decisions herself. Doctor Ross had just followed procedure and had possibly called him, all thanks to her little panic attack at having Braxton-Hicks contractions that she had confused with a miscarriage while all alone at her dorm room just hours ago.

_That's just great!_

She realized that she had not said anything for a long minute but nothing appropriate came to her mind. What was she supposed to do? What was she supposed to say? Did he know what her condition was? Was his wife waiting outside for him? Had he called Scott? Why was he offering her a ride? Did he…

"I've been standing outside for the past fifteen minutes," he began as he stole quick glances at her. "I-I wasn't sure what to say first."

Good.

She was not the only one without words.

He appeared to have more ready than she did, though, evident in the way he switched his weight from one foot to the other, and in the way his eyes shifted left and right.

"I… there's a lot I have – I _want_ to say… if you let me."

She knew he did, very well so, but she was not sure if she herself was ready to hear his words again.

"Thanks for coming," she told him and it caught him by surprise. He had honestly thought that her first words to him would be something along the lines of _get the fuck_ _out_ of her room and her _life_, again, so he was glad that she was at least not looking angry at him yet.

"I'm sorry if Dr. Ross woke you up. I-I got very scared."

"So I've heard," he said and then waved the papers he had in his hand. "And I heard why, too."

Her eyes stared at her lap and she swallowed hard.

"You… you don't need to worry about the ride. I'll call a cab."

"No," he said and took one slow step toward her in a way that showed he was being mindful of the distance between them, and if she was not about to lose her voice and cry in sadness at seeing him again, she would have found it endearing how this moment was so very similar to the first time that she had seen him after she had woken up from her first coma.

_The boy's eyes finally looked up to her and he stared deeply into her hazel eyes. She had never seen eyes as blue as his, as far as she knew anyway, and if he had not looked so sad, so… distraught, she would have enjoyed them that much more. _

"_Can I get closer?" he asked and pointed to the general area of her bed._

_ "Sure," she said. "You're the first one to be concerned about my personal bubble," she added with a smile._

"I can take you," he continued. "I _want_ to take you. I want to make sure you two are alright."

_You two_, she thought and looked at her belly that was not yet showing signs of being pregnant. _He's talking about me and the baby._

"Pepper," her name on his lips made her heart skip a beat. "Please, I'm already here, right? Let me take you home."

She thought about his offer for a moment; it did really sound tempting to her. Calling a cab was no problem, sure, but he would probably just end up following her anyway, if just to make sure she made it to the dorm. Then again, she had not planned on returning to campus tonight and she had sincerely hoped that she could crash at Roberta's place for the night. She really did not feel like being pointed at and whispered about as she walked back to her building, and seeing as everyone knew who she was, the gossip and the rumors would not wait to sprout; _especially_, if Tony Stark was the one to drop her off in the wee hours of the morning.

"Are you alone?" she could not help herself to ask. She really did not feel like listening to Maya Hansen chatter about her wedding or honeymoon or whatever other topic she did not want to have any knowledge of, but she also did not want to be rude to the girl. She was Tony's wife after all, and it would be extremely distasteful for her to tell off the significant other of the guy who had just offered to do her a favor. His response, however, caught her by surprise.

"Are you? Where's Scott?"

Pepper exhaled deeply and shook her head.

"He left. We… we broke up."

Tony frowned, dared to take another step toward her bed, and she could already tell he was starting to get angry at the situation before he even knew the details off it.

Typical Stark.

"Broke it off? All of it? Because of this?!"

"No," she said immediately. "He-he doesn't even know. I haven't told him about it."

"Oh," he said, was visibly taken aback and he now certainly understood what Dr. Ross had been talking about when he had stated that the ginger was all by herself; he just had not immediately believed Scott to be the type of man who did not take responsibility for the consequences of his actions, so he had assumed that the jock was still with Pepper and that Dr. Ross had simply been mistaken. If what Pepper was saying was true, nonetheless, it seemed that they had both been correct.

"I'm sorry to hear that," he finally said about the break up and his head hung.

"I'll survive," she said, looked down at her belly again and rubbed it with her right hand. "I won't be alone for long anyway, right?"

Tony looked up to stare at her as she patted her stomach and a sad smile reached his face.

"No. You won't."

They remained silent for another moment until Tony took the final step to reach her bed and spoke again.

"So, can I take you home?"

_Home_, she thought bitterly when she realized that she did not know what that word meant anymore. It had been more than a year that she had had no true place to call home, although her current address was her dorm room at ESU. She knew that the campus was not truly her home, even if she _had_ been living in it; it was merely a place where she could crash at night when she was not studying her ass off at the library or when she was part of a forced study group for a class project.

"I wouldn't want to impose," she said and began sliding herself to the opposite edge of the bed he was standing at. "Your wife may get mad."

It did not take him more than a second to round the bed to stand before her and she stopped dead in her tracks with his next words.

"I don't have a wife," he swallowed hard. "You're not the only one that has been left behind, Pep."

Now that she stared at him up close, she could see he did not look any better than she probably did right now. He looked tired, skinnier, and had on socks that did not even match. His clothes were incredibly creased, as if he had had them under the bed or pillow for weeks, and she had no doubt that that had been the case. She was not sure what Dr. Ross had told him to get him to come to the hospital past midnight, but it must have been something very shocking for him to have rushed out of his home like this.

_Home_, she thought. _There it is again. Home._

"Pepper," he had to fight the urge to take her hands in his or to hold her face that was less than a foot away from his. "I…" he briefly closed his eyes but then opened them up again to show in them the sudden determination he now felt. "Please, let me do this. I _need_ to do this. We… we _need _to talk. We _really_ need to talk."

Pepper sighed. "Tony, I don't think that–"

Whatever excuse she was about to give died on her lips when he fell to his knees before her. He had done this in the past; it was not new to her, but that never made the gesture lose its meaning when it came from _him_. Many enemies of his had brought him down to his knees in pain or subjugation, but she knew that, this time, he was doing this out of his own free will and not because anything had forced him to do so.

"I'm sorry," he said, eyes on the floor, shoulders sagged, his arms at his sides – his defenses down. "I am _so_ sorry, for everything, Pepper," he added as he looked up at her. "I know saying sorry doesn't cut it. I know accepting I was a jerk and that I should've never lied to you in the first place doesn't cut it. But I don't think anything does at this point. I don't think anything ever will. But I don't know what else I could do or say to make you believe me. To make you _understand_ how much it pains me to have hurt you, and how much I wish I hadn't put you through this at all."

Pepper licked her lips and felt tears come to her eyes at his words and at a memory that came to the forefront of her mind.

_"Dammit, Pepper!" he threw his hands in the air. "What do you want me to do? Break up with you? Will that make you happy? Is that what you want? This doesn't have to be this hard, you know? Your dad is worried sick about you. We all are. We want you back, Pepper. We spent the entire day looking for you: me, my dad, Rhodey, Roberta and your dad. They're ready to start again in a few hours. Do you want me to just leave you alone and tell them you don't care enough about them to come back? Is that what you want me to do for you?"_

_ "No."_

_ "Do you want me to get on my knees and beg?"_

_ "Of course not!"_

_ "Then what, Pepper? What do you want?"_

What_ did_ she want now?

Pepper sat back on the edge of the bed that she had just vacated seconds ago and breathed in deeply to calm her tears and quivering lips. She was not sure if it was the pregnancy hormones or the shock of seeing him like this that was making her feel queasy and weak in the knees again but, either way, she felt as if she was tearing at the seams and that nothing she could do would stop how she felt now.

Tony remained in his position on the floor, but he also rested his arms on the bed on either side of her legs, being careful not to touch her.

"Pepper, please…"

"Did Maya have to leave you so that you'd realize what you did and apologized to me?"

"Only if Scott had to leave you in order for you to give me a chance to say anything at all to you."

Even though the words themselves could have been portrayed as an insult, or the beginning of another argument between them, she knew his intention had been neither. His eyes were glistening. His entire form looked broken. She knew that he was just trying to get his point across that they had both let their non-happy relationships with the other two subjects become an excuse for not talking things out; for not giving a chance for the other to truly explain what had them so upset and bitter at how things had turned out to be.

"It's not that easy, Tony," she said, hands clutched against her chest and her eyes staring above his head and towards the back wall. "It's not all just going to go away like that."

"I know," he nodded in understanding as his eyes stared at her belly. "I don't expect it to. It's been a long time and a lot of things have happened. But, but…"

"But, what?" she asked and then made the mistake of staring at him when her eyes still looked as if she were inviting him to move forward with whatever he wanted to do. Before she could switch the way she was gazing at him, before she could put a stop to his moves, the blue-eyed boy took advantage of her silent offer, which he was not sure how much longer was going to last, and he leaned closer to her while still keeping his knees firmly planted on the floor.

"But," he began as he grabbed her hands in his, laced their fingers together, placed them at the sides of her legs and then carefully rested the left side of his face on her lap. "We can try."

Pepper closed her eyes tightly when a new round of tears came to her, and she breathed slowly through her nose. She then opened her eyes again and looked at him as he brought her left hand, which was in his right one, to his lips to kiss the back of it. The gesture, while simple, meant the world to her. She knew that he was done playing around and so was she, but now that she had a baby on the way, she did not feel that they could ever go back to the way they had been before.

_But_, she repeated his words, _we can try. Even if all we end up being is friends again, we can still try. I can't ask him for more any longer._

She slowly slid her hands away from his, and even though he did not do anything to stop her, his heart still ached. She had rejected him; she had to have just rejected him. His final attempt had failed.

Or so he had thought.

He exhaled loudly and was about to pull up from her lap, but he then felt her fingers run through his hair, keeping him where he was, and he held back a gratifying moan. He clenched his eyes shut and took his arms to surround her waist as tightly as he could from his kneeling position still on the floor. Her fingers tantalizingly moved from the top of his scalp to the back of his neck and towards his back under his shirt. He did not give a damn that she could feel what her touch was doing to him when he felt goosebumps invade his skin. He _wanted_ her to see, to feel, to _know_ what she did to him. He wanted her to know that after all this time, he _still_ craved only her.

"You need a haircut," she whispered and he chuckled. "And a bath."

"And a change of clothes," he began. "And a shave, and a good night's rest, and a nutritious meal, and a beautiful woman by my side."

Pepper scoffed. "A woman to remind you to do all of those things? You mean a babysitter? At your age?"

Tony shook his head, lifted it from her lap and stared at her.

"No. I said a beautiful woman. Someone who makes it all worth it. Someone for me to do all of those things for her."

Pepper bit her bottom lip, wanting nothing more than to take him up on his offer, but she knew she could not; not so quickly, and maybe even not at all. It was too impulsive; too spontaneous to be healthy for trying to rebuild what they had lost.

"Tony, we… we can't just suddenly jump back to…to…"

"I know," he said, took her hands to his lips and kissed her knuckles. "One day at a time, Pep. Just, one day at a time. That's all I'm asking for."

"But, what about… I mean, I'm… well…" she stared at her belly and he shrugged.

"What about it?" he shrugged back. "That doesn't change anything for me."

"Now," she said with an unbelieving smirk.

"Never," he said with a look so serious and determined that she had to look away from him.

She exhaled deeply again, gave him a final nod and he then helped her stand up from the bed. She wiped some of her tears from her face, grabbed the abandoned pamphlets he had left on the bedside and chuckled bitterly as she read the titles.

"Not the best way to find out your former best friend is pregnant, huh?"

"Former?" Tony said, grabbed her hand in his and began leading her to the exit of the room. "You were just on sabbatical, right?"

Pepper furrowed her brow at what he had just said. Yet, when she remembered her press release statement of a year ago, she knew what he was talking about and smiled. Her sabbatical; her way out of some of the media gossip that would follow her coming back to his life with full force while carrying someone else's child. _Her sabbatical_: the reason why she could pretend to come back to her former life as if nothing major had ever happened in the last year.

They could tell the media whatever the hell they wanted about them, about why she was suddenly coming back to the spotlight she had so readily abandoned more than a year ago, and they both knew that, in the end, it did not matter what they said because the gossip would still be there, the assumptions would still be there, and the easy money-making attempts by cheap, unprofessional reporters and the press would still be there. But with his words, he had just told her that he would do anything to make it easier on her; anything that was within his power and reach to make the transition as flawless as he could make it to be.

Just as before, here he was doing it again; and here she was, letting him do it for her. He was going to be there for her and with her, despite the angry words they had once exchanged. Words that should have never mattered to her, anyway. She should have learned by now that actions – true actions and not reactions to unkind words – were in fact louder than words, even if the words were of love and devotion. Scott had spoken many of those types of words to her, and she was sure that Maya had done the same to him, but in the end, today, when both the jock and the brunette were gone from their lives, their souls had found each other again. Just as they always did.

Words were useless, she knew, but there were so many that wanted to come out of her lips just about now. She wanted to thank him for doing this for her. She wanted to apologize for hurting him too, as she knew she was as responsible and guilty as he was for the chaos that had ensued for the past year. She wanted to tell him that she felt like the worst person in the world for ever doubting his intentions and actions; actions that had only shown her how deeply he cared about her. But most of all, she wanted to assure him that, if things had been different, if she had not been stupid enough to let her rage take over her, this baby she was now carrying would have been his.

Words were useless; actions were not.

So, with that thought in mind, she stopped his hand from opening the door and instead used her own hand to redirect his face to hers, gave him only a second to think, and then pressed her lips against his.

Words were useless; and she knew he agreed with her when he eagerly kissed her back.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** To those of you who have stuck through these stories – as painful as they once were, these _Last Chronicles_ – I have a big, fat THANK YOU for you. Not only in words, but in actions, and you are about to receive the BEST TWO YEARS of Tony and Pepper's lives so far in this story. Sit tight, my Lovelies. We're going to have some fun.


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N: **YAY! I'm glad most of you like where this is going. And, if you don't, will it help if I say there's tons of Pepperony in this story and the next one? ;)

**Guest Review Responses**

**ANA: ESERO QUE PONGAS A GENE EN ESTA HISTORIA **Again, I don't want to spoil it, but Gene will be showing up soon (not in this story, though). I hope you can wait :)

**Woao... hoy a sido un infierno de día para mi, y luego encuentro que no sólo terminaste el primer año, sino que subiste completo el segundo y regalas este "agri"-DULCE primer capítulo del tercer año. Yo que había pensado darme un baño e irme al cine, ahora tú me has brindado la maravillosa oportunidad de quedarme en mi casa con un tazón de helado y tu zaga para despejarme de todo. Mi cobardía para leer el primer año la dejo detrás y me voy a sentar a leer nuevamente todos los años anteriores, al saber que toda la angustia me traerá aquí, un puerto seguro luego de un recorrido tan tormentoso... ****GRACIAS, GRACIAS, GRACIAS, por escribir **Seeing the story may have made _your _day, but seeing your review made _my_ year! Thank you for trusting me and for investing time in reading the craziness that comes out of my wicked mind XD

**LOVE IT ALL OF IT ;) More soon lease **Updates for this story will take a little longer than before because I'm not as far ahead as I was with the other stories, but at least it'll be cuteness all around and no killing for anyone (or at least not of Tony and Pepper :P). Thank you for reading!

**I have a little feeling that the baby might be Tony's... But I might be wrong. I think us readers should be the one's thanking YOU. You have given us (in my opinion) the best imaa stories eva! I'm definitely gonna stick through the rest of your stories! ***blushes* Thank you! I try my best and I'm aware that sometimes I write drama that makes you want to kick the screen, so I'm very appreciative of those who stick around until the end. Believe me, it's going to be worth it :) And, it appears that you and almost EVERYONE else think the baby is Tony's. LOL. This chapter may give more information, though.

**pepperony4evah:Look I know I'm being rude but I need you to know that I didnt read all the way from The Last month through two yrs up to this to see pepper end up bearing a bun in her oven by FRIGGIN SCOTT THE MUTANT. I dont possibly see a way how the baby could be Tony's either seeing that they havent so much as spoken to each other properly for a yr. I hope the baby gets miscarriaged or she's not preggers at all and all this is a big fat wet dream tony friggin stark is seeing. They are just too young to have kids. They are kids themselves for heavens sake! They have a lot to do, lots of fun to have before they become parents to an unwanted child! Pls pls pls dont make her pregnant! Let them enjoy their single life for a while! Pls! #beggin **I don't think you're being rude; you're just expressing your feelings, which is what the whole point of a story should be. It should make you feel like you're there with the characters and perhaps want to kill the author for putting them through stuff you don't want them to suffer through (even if the dead one here is me O_O). But, please don't kill me yet…and don't give up yet…they ARE going to have fun ^_^

**:Me encanta todos los ficts que escribes, aunq sufra mucho a través de ellos! **YAY! Thank you very much! I promise you won't be suffering too much with these two :)

**:I've noticed the genre of this one is romance and humour. Good to hear there isn't much angst in this, we all need a break from that! Update soon! **I know! Even I do, too. I was tearing up with you guys when I wrote the other ones.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 2: September<strong>

She had wanted them to meet up at a neutral place where they could talk in private, but there were not that many options available to choose from on short notice. Her father was arriving from the Middle East in just a few days, and she had wanted to share the news with everyone she cared about; including the father of the baby himself, before Virgil returned to the States.

Going to visit Scott Summers at his new home/school where Jean Grey would be present, or having him go to hers and Tony's apartment – to which she had moved back into at the insistency of Tony – was definitely out of the question. Having the jock go to Stark Solutions or Stark International was also not appropriate, and the last thing she had wanted to do was being in public when she broke the news to him. This narrowed her choices to only two places for them to use, and she was at one of them with him right now.

"What IS this place, Pepper?" Scott Summers asked in awe as he gazed around the highly complex lab that displayed all kinds of bizarre-looking high-tech artifacts that he was not even going to pretend he understood what they were for or what they did. These items might as well have been labeled with a huge 'do not touch or be turned into a giant squid' sign and, for all he knew, something, somewhere in this temple of knowledge and tech could very well do said deed.

"Is this where you used to do recon for Iron Man? It looks old but new at the same time. It's so weird!"

Not even Professor Xavier's advanced labs under the mansion, and in fact, not even the _Blackbird_ he had piloted back at home or _Cerebro_ itself, showed this intricacy of creation. No wonder the Professor had gotten his flying chair from Tony Stark!

"Yes. This is our base," the redhead said and made a sweeping gesture with her hands. "Welcome to Team Iron Man's headquarters."

"Damn," Scott looked at the numbered compartments above them, which he figured held the many armors Tony had built over the years. He had only known of a few of them he had seen on television, other than the one he had himself once used, but it appeared that the handful he had known about were only a small sample of the numerous ones he was gazing at now.

"Two years, Pepper. We dated for nearly _two_ years, and you never brought me here before. I have a feeling that it's not a good thing that you're doing it now."

Pepper sighed and shook her head.

"I'm not sure if it's good news or bad news, but something is definitely up, and you need to know about it. I just wanted us to be in a place where we won't be disturbed."

"Alright," he said with a steady voice, keeping his own worry to himself, and then finally faced her again. "Wait, am I gonna get beat up by Iron Man? Are you the bait? Because I have laser eyes and I'm not afraid to use them on him," he added with a small smile in an attempt to break the tension he could feel was building. He had not seen Pepper since they had broken up and he could not imagine why she wanted to meet with him now.

Pepper could not help to chuckle at his joke and then shook her head at him.

"No, Scott. Tony's outside. He won't come in unless I ask him to."

"So, he _is_ here."

The redhead nodded. "Of course he is. He piloted the suit that brought you here."

"You mean he piloted the armor that didn't let me see where I was being taken and nearly scared the crud out of me?"

"Yes," she said and flinched. "Sorry about that. The location of this place needs to stay a secret. It's for you own protection."

"I'm sure," he scoffed but still gave her a smile. He beheld her up and down, noticed how much happier she seemed and acted than during their time together over the last year, and he felt the tiniest pang of jealousy that it had never been_ him_ who had brought that out in her, but that it had been the man that he had now learned to respect – or at least not hate anymore.

Being with Jean Grey had been a breath of fresh air for him after months of tension, and he was certain that if it had not been for her, he would have not been able to so easily heal after realizing that he and Pepper were never meant to be; that they had wasted their time, that he had inadvertently kept her from being with who she truly loved. As he had told Pepper once before, he had hoped that Tony Stark would come to his senses too, and that he could one day do for Pepper what Jean had done for him: be the balm their hearts so greatly required to move on.

At the same time, however, he knew he would always wonder what it would have been like to actually marry the ginger, and while he would never openly admit it to avoid the drama the knowledge would cause, the spunky redhead would always have a piece of his heart, no matter what. Even now, as their lives had gone their separate ways and he was happy with Jean Grey, he could not deny himself that he was still slightly attracted to Pepper Potts.

_Maybe it's the hair_, he mused. He _was_ dating another redhead, right?

"I'm glad that you guys are friends again," he continued as if he had not been arguing with himself just now. "Or at least talking again. That's a start."

The ginger shrugged. "It hasn't been easy, but we're trying to work it out."

"Good," he said with an honest smile. "So, what's up?"

"We better sit down for this," she said, the smile disappearing from her face as she ushered him to the two stools that were always set by the large computer screens. Once they both sat on each one, Pepper took in a deep breath, held his hands in hers, and just said the words that needed to be said.

"I'm pregnant."

His immediate and only response was silence – as she had expected it to be – so she continued her speech.

"And yes, you're the father. But no, I'm not telling you for you to do anything about it. I just thought that you should know."

She could not see it, but after he swallowed hard, Scott's eyes landed on her belly and, as if driven by inertia, he pulled one of his hands from hers and placed it on her stomach. Pepper chuckled when the rub he gave her tickled her, but the moment of lightheartedness quickly ended when he sighed loudly through his nose, although he never removed his hand from her tummy.

"Pepper, I…," he sighed again and squeezed her hand. "I don't know what to say. I… how… how-how far along are you?"

"Two months," she said. "Going on three."

"When… when is he or she due?" he spared her a glance before returning his eyes to her stomach.

"March."

"March," he repeated, removed his hand from her stomach and returned it to her free hand. "I… wow… this is… Pepper, I… if you… if you want…" he began, looked up at her, but a light shake of her head stopped him from saying anything else.

"No," she gave him a small smile she hoped would ease his concerns. "I already told you: I'm not expecting anything from you. I just… I just wanted you to know. I know you're with Jean now, and I'm happy for you. I… we-we'll be fine. If you want to be involved, that's great. If you don't… that's alright, too."

Scott's head hung and he remained silent for another moment before he finally looked at her again.

"Pepper, you-you know that… being my kid and all… that he… or she… there's a chance that… that…"

Pepper nodded slowly and lifted her left hand to touch his cheek. She had already gotten over the shock and realization he was currently experiencing, and she forthrightly wanted to make this easier for him than it had been for her.

"Yes, I know. And I don't care. I… it was stupid… _ignorant_ of me to be afraid of you. Of them. I just didn't know. I just… it doesn't even matter anymore."

"I-I… I don't know what to think right now. I… I'm sorry. I don't know what I want to do about this. I know what I _should_ do, but…"

Pepper shrugged and pulled her hand back to grab his again.

"It's alright. I'm only telling my family and friends about it for now, and since I won't show for a while, I'm not saying anything to the press until it's obvious. But I won't make that move without telling you about it first. I don't want to hurt what you have with Jean, and I don't want this to be a big issue between us. Do you think… do you think that can be done?"

"I don't… What… what can I do? I don't want you to do this alone. It's not right."

"I won't be," she assured him. "I have Roberta and Rhodey and Howard and my dad and Tony. I won't be alone."

Scott scoffed bitterly. "Your dad's gonna kill me."

"No, he won't," she said before she giggled. "Well, just don't show your face around here for the next few months while I calm him down. And, if you see an older man with brown hair and blue eyes following you, run like hell."

"That's reassuring," he snickered, looked at the ceiling, exhaled and then stared at her again. "In fact, I'm surprised that Tony is not plotting against me right now."

"Who said he's not?" she jested, and when Scott's mouth hung, she laughed aloud. "Just kidding! He's more worried about how this will affect me. He won't touch you either."

"I'm never leaving the school now."

"Oh, come on, Scott!" Pepper said as she stood up and took him with her. "It's… it's gonna be alright. You'll see."

"Is it?" he asked in a disbelieving tone. "I doubt it, Pepper. I know this is not going to be OK," he said with a sigh. He then rubbed the back of his neck with his left hand and exhaled in exasperation. "I never intended to have you do this alone. I… I should just move back here to be with you and the baby and… and we should…"

"No," she said and held his face in her hands. "Listen to me. Whatever is done is done and nothing will ever change it. But that doesn't mean that you have to give up what you want, or that we have to tie ourselves together because of a baby. I _don't _want that. I don't know what I want or what I'm going to do, but I do know getting married or something like that just because that's what society expects us to do is NOT what I want."

"But Pepper… Are-are you sure? That's what you say right now, but later, when the baby is born…"

"I'm sure," she said with resolve and let go of his face. "It'll be alright."

Scott stared at the floor for a moment, gave her a quick nod and then finally looked at her again.

"I'm sorry, Pepper. I feel like I've ruined your life."

Pepper gave him a sad smile. She then pulled herself closer to him and gave him a hug he immediately returned.

"You didn't," she whispered to him. "The complete opposite of it, in fact."

They remained in the embrace for another minute until they both broke it off at the same time when they heard steps approaching them and they both stared at the entrance of the temple to see Tony coming inside.

"Sorry," he said with a rueful smile, hands in his pockets. "I just… I just got called for a mission and I need to go."

"It's OK," Pepper said. "We… we're done, right, Scott?"

"Yes," he said. "I think so, yes."

"OK," Tony said, not sure of what else to say or do. Thankfully for him, the redhead had his back.

"Why don't you suit up, Tony?" she said as she guided Scott away from the entrance and to the center of the temple. "I'll use the command chair to get Scott back home."

"Are you sure?"

"Yup. Just, can you get the suit on him, please?"

"Mark I?" Tony asked as he began calling on both suits.

"Yeah," she said and gave the jock one last glance he nodded to. She then walked over to the chair, sat in it, and got ready to navigate the Mark I armor via remote. "All set."

"Alright," the inventor said and, after narrowing his eyes in concentration, both the Mark I and II began attaching themselves to the jock and the blue-eyed-boy, respectively. Scott's look of surprise was not lost to the ginger, but she did not have enough time to laugh aloud about his face when Tony's disguised voice carried over the temple.

"Pepper, be careful when you take the suit to Roberta's home."

"I will be," she assured him, and after he gave her a nod, he disappeared inside the exit chute. Seconds later, the redhead guided the Mark I to use the same exit chute that Tony had just vacated, and as she got the coordinates ready to return Scott to his own home, she heard the jock speak up.

"Pepper?" his face was visible on the screen of the command chair.

"Yeah?" she asked and turned on the visual option so that he could see her face as well.

"You… you know where to find me, right? Just in case, well…"

"Yes," Pepper smiled and tilted her head. "I do. It was nice seeing you again, Scott."

Scott visibly gulped and sadly nodded one last time. "It was nice seeing you too, Pepper."

xxxXXXxxx

A couple of hours after the mission had ended, the living room at the Rhodes home was eerily quiet. Learning that Pepper and Tony were not only again on speaking terms, but that she had also moved back into the apartment with him, had been a pleasant surprise for everyone. However, the appearance of anxiety on the youngsters' faces had quickly squashed the happiness that had invaded Roberta and Howard, just seconds ago.

"But, that's not all," Pepper said as she cracked her knuckles and then tried to exhale away her nervousness. She was not sure why she was so worried about telling the two surrogate parental figures in her life about her current situation, but she reckoned it was probably because they were expecting to hear that she and Tony were back together when they were not. Yes: they were once again roommates, and they were slowly trying to get back into the routine and rebuilding their friendship, but their moments alone still turned awkward at the drop of a hat.

The two heroes were sitting on the same couch while the two adults sat in front of them in chairs with expectant looks. Pepper stared to her right to look at Tony, and he gave her a reassuring smile and light squeeze on her right knee, both gestures not at all lost to the senior inventor and his lawyer friend, who had been praying day and night for the couple to finally come to terms with the fact that there was no point in being apart.

Pepper returned her eyes to Roberta and Howard, took in a deep breath, and just as she had done with Scott hours ago, she just went ahead and said what needed to be said without bothering to cushion the blow.

"I'm pregnant."

The look of shock on the two adults was hilarious to the pair, but their next move was even more comical than that. In unison, both their eyes and faces shifted from staring at Pepper to staring at Tony, who just rolled his eyes and scoffed.

"Yes, I already know about it. And no, I'm not the father," he answered their unspoken questions and, as soon as his words left him, their eyes again shifted to stare at Pepper once more.

"It's Scott's."

Her response incited the adults to again shift their gazes back to Tony, their eyes wider and their mouths even slacker than before.

"No, I didn't kill the guy. Jeez!" Tony said defensively and shook his head.

The two sets of eyes returned to Pepper.

"I already told Scott I'm keeping it, but I haven't told my dad yet."

Older eyes shifted to Tony and the inventor groaned.

"Yes, I'm fine with it. I told Pepper I'm going to do anything I can to help her."

Gazes reverted to Pepper.

"No. Tony and I are not back together."

Eyes on Tony.

"But we're still friends."

Eyes on Pepper.

"And I'm not taking over CEO or active Rescue duties until after the baby is born."

Eyes on Tony.

"Due in March."

Eyes on Pepper.

"I'm raising him or her alone."

Eyes on Tony.

"But with my help."

Eyes on Pepper.

"And I was hoping you wouldn't mind keeping it a secret for now."

Howard and Roberta stared at each other, engaged in a silent conversation, frowned and then nodded at each other once before they returned their attention to the pair. The two young adults were taken aback by the sudden reaction, but they were even _more_ surprised when Roberta grabbed Tony's arm and led them both out of the living room and to the porch outside.

Pepper's eyes followed them until they disappeared behind the closed front door and she then returned her gaze to an upset-looking Howard Stark sitting in front of her.

"Did Tony do this to you?"

"What? No," Pepper shook her head. "Scott's the father."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," she nodded vehemently. "What makes you think this baby is Tony's?"

"Your history together? Pepper, I love my son, but he can be very reckless sometimes. And if he did this to you and he's not responding, I swear I'll…"

"Howard," Pepper began as she leaned over the table and grabbed one of his hands in hers. "Tony _IS_ reckless, but he would never deny doing something like this. We… we've had our issues, yes. And we're working on them. But, he's not at fault here. _I_ was the careless one and I'm just grateful and so very lucky that he's overlooking the fact that I made a mistake."

Howard's eyes softened a little at her words, but he still felt troubled by the state of affairs. Before, when it had been just the two of them, their lives together had been bumpy sometimes, just as any other young couple's road to commitment tended to be. Yet, back then, only the two of them had been the ones mostly affected by their actions and decisions. This time, however, the situation was very different, and the older inventor was not sure that the two young adults were ready or had even already foreseen how much more rutted the road was going to get for them.

Now, with a baby added to the picture, he did not want to see that innocent bystander get caught in the middle of the heated arguments he knew his son and the ginger could get wrapped in, especially since he knew how challenging their lives were about to get. He knew that they could be very happy together, as he had already seen they could be. Nonetheless, bringing a baby into mix could have terrible repercussions when their friendship was not even completely healed yet and their roles in the other's lives were not clearly defined as of now.

"Are you sure about this, Pepper? Are you sure that having Tony around is what you want? Roberta and I both are so very happy to support you either way, but I don't know if Tony is ready for this."

"I don't think either of us is ready," she shrugged. "But we've talked about this a lot. I gave him a way out. Several times already, in fact. But he still insists on being there for me."

"And, what about you?" Howard asked. "Are you letting him be involved because he's stubborn, or because you're actually fine with him being there for you?"

Pepper shrugged. "A little bit of both, I guess? I-I understand this is not ideal or planned, or anything my dad's going to be proud of me doing. But at this point, all I want to do is look ahead. There's… there's really no point in looking back, right?"

"Guess not," Howard said with a sigh. "But, if this is what you want, then… I'm happy for you, Pepper."

"Thank you. It means a lot," she said with a smile. Her eyes then stared at the still closed front door and she flinched. "Should I go save Tony from whatever Roberta is putting him through?"

"Nah," Howard said and dismissed the idea with a wave of his hand. "A little bit of ear pulling can't hurt."

Pepper giggled and Howard soon joined in. Once the laughter stopped, they both stood up and began walking over to the kitchen to find a snack while they waited for the lawyer and her client to finish their little chat.

xxxXXXxxx

"Yes, I AM serious, Roberta," Tony said for the twentieth time. "I'm OK that she's having Scott's baby. Not much I can do about it now, anyway, right?"

"True," Roberta began. "But I don't think that you understand what you're doing here. I care for _both_ of you, Tony. And I don't want to see that poor girl having to pack up her stuff again and move out when one day you decide that you've had enough crying at two in the morning. This is a BABY, Tony. It doesn't just go away."

"I know that!" Tony shouted, by this time already fed up with being told the same thing over and over again. "I know that it's not a puppy or a bird or a cat that I can return to the store or to the pound when I get tired of it. It's going to be another human being that we'll have to take into account for any decisions we make. I _get_ that, alright?"

"I don't think you do!" Roberta's hands rested on her hips. "It's hard enough when it's your own baby. What will stop you from one day thinking that it's not worth it to raise and take care of a child that's not yours? What will stop you from calling it quits on Pepper one day when she needs you the most and then you finally realize that you carry no actual responsibility for this baby?"

Tony closed his eyes and shook his head. He then stared away from the angry-looking attorney as a memory returned to him.

_Glenda's brow furrowed and she rearranged the fussy baby's position in her arms. _

"_I… we're naming her Patricia," Glenda said and pointed to the baby with her chin. "We found out that that's Pepper's real name. I want my baby to grow up to be like Pepper, and maybe having her name will set her on the right path. I don't know what would've happened to all of us if Pepper hadn't been there. She really stuck her neck out for us. I…" the woman's eyes began to shine. "I know you two are rich and all, and there's probably nothing I could have that you two can't get, but if there's anything you and her need, please let me know."_

Tony knew that Glenda Barnes' baby was not her former fiancé's and that the man was aware of that fact as well. However, said detail had not stopped them from keeping the baby and from getting married, just as they had already planned on doing – both Tony and Pepper had received the invitation to the wedding, but neither of them had attended and had just sent gifts. The inventor also recognized why Glenda's now-husband had accepted a baby that was not his. It was the same reason why Tony wanted and planned to accept and take care of Scott's baby, as if it were his own.

"Roberta," Tony began and sighed. "You… you already _know_ what will stop me from doing that to Pepper. From walking away from her and the baby. It's… it's the same reason that tells me that I should be there for her. It's the same reason why I WANT to be there for her. For them."

Roberta sighed in resignation and then placed a hand on Tony's left shoulder as he was still staring at something in the beyond.

"How long would that be strong enough to make you stay?"

"As long as she wants me around," he said without missing a beat, his eyes never leaving the horizon. "And probably even after that, too."

"This is a very courageous thing for you to do, Tony. You do realize that, right?"

Tony scoffed. "No, it's not."

Roberta frowned and pulled away her hand from his shoulder. "What do you mean it's not? I think it absolutely is!"

"It's not," he repeated and then finally turned his body to face her. "The courageous thing would've been for me to have never lied to her about our past together, and for me to have just accepted the challenge it is to have her in my life with all the dangers it entails. _That_ would've been courageous… and the _right_ thing to do."

"You can't change the past, Tony."

"I know," he said with a shrug. "But I can make it a better future for us, and that's what I plan to do."

The attorney finally smiled brightly and embraced the blue-eyed boy – man – and it was then that she realized what Howard Stark had seen himself not seconds ago inside the home: that the two awkward teens that used to deny their feelings for each other, were no more.

xxxXXXxxx

Virgil Potts had arrived at Newark Airport three hours ago, and after a long lunch chat with his daughter and after arriving at the apartment she lived in with Tony Stark, the retired FBI agent now found himself narrowing his eyes at the pair before him. He had just been given the most shocking news in his entire life – probably even more shocking than finding out that his ex-wife had cheated on him, and rivaled only by Pepper's kidnapping and torture by Whitney Stane. He was yet to move, blink or say anything at all, which made the two heroes extremely nervous and on edge.

Pepper swallowed hard and then stared at Tony from the corner of her eye, only to notice that he also had a look of utter panic on his face. He knew that he was innocent here, but he also knew that Virgil did not know that yet, and by the look he was now starting to receive from the man, the inventor knew that that piece of information needed to be put out in the open immediately.

Unfortunately for them, it was this very moment that Virgil decided to speak again and in the grimmest tone that the ginger had ever heard him use… towards her.

"So," he said. "You two are getting married, right?"

"What?" Pepper asked with a frown and a shake of the head. "Me and Tony, married? No. Absolutely not! Why would we? NO!"

"Jeez, Pepper," Tony furrowed his brow. "You don't _have_ to sound so sickened by the idea, you know?"

"I'm not sickened by it!" she retorted and stared back at him with an incredulous look. "I mean, it's not like you've even asked! Not that you should or that I expect you to, anyway."

Tony's head jerked back and his eyes widened in shock.

"Haven't even _asked_? Really? Uh, Pep, did you forget that I already did?"

"What, when?" she asked, momentarily forgetting that her father was staring back and forth between the two of them with a murderous look.

"What do you mean 'when'?" Tony crossed his arms over his chest, also forgetting their small quarrel was being keenly observed by the father of the girl he was arguing with. "Right before we slept together, that night when we were undercover with the Maggia! Did you really forget that?"

"Oooh," Pepper said and snapped her fingers in realization as the memory returned to her. "You're right! You're right! Well, _technically_, you didn't ask. You just told me _not _to marry Scott," she pointed out.

"Uh, actually, I _did_ ask: TWICE. I specifically remember asking you to marry me, and I also specifically remember you not giving me a response."

"Huh," Pepper tapped her chin with her right finger. "Yeah, you did. I remember now! Sorry," she shrugged. "I just kinda forgot because, well… other things happened that night."

Tony gave her a smug smile. "I know. That was a really great night, wasn't it?"

"It really was," she agreed and then they both heard the man that they had completely forgotten was still there, clear his throat.

"Are you two about done, now? Or do I have to listen to the specifics of how my baby girl got pregnant in the first place?!"

"Uh, uhm, ahem, Dad, I… sorry, I mean, we… Tony… Tony's not the father."

"Oh, _really_?" Virgil said, his eyes never leaving Tony's form. "I find that hard to believe since I just _heard_ him say that you two slept together!"

"We-we… we did," Tony said and gulped. "But it-it was only that one time and it was a year-and-a-half ago. It never happened again, sir."

"Oh," Virgil began. "So that's what she means to you? Nothing? She's just a one-night stand? Is that it? I'm VERY disappointed in you, young man!"

"What? NO!" Tony said, honestly offended by the assumption. "I wanted to sleep with her again but she didn't take me back!"

"What?" Virgil's right eye twitched.

"Tony, shut up!" Pepper said between clenched teeth. "You're _not_ helping!"

"I-I… I… I…" Tony pursed his lips. "Shutting up now."

"Thank you," she said with a glare and then returned to face her father again. "Look, Dad, Tony and I haven't dated for years. I-I was actually engaged to Scott for a while, and…"

"What?" it was now Virgil's left eye that twitched. "You-you were _engaged_? WHEN were you planning on _telling_ me this?!"

"Probably never?" Tony said with a scoff and then his eyes widened when he realized what he had just said. "Sorry."

"Seriously?" Pepper asked. "What the hell are you doing to me?"

Tony shrugged and flinched again. "I-I really don't know."

"Hello?" Virgil shouted. "I'm waiting for an explanation, Patricia Marie Potts!"

_Oh shit!_ The ginger thought as she looked at the ceiling. _He's pissed! He's pissed! He's middle-naming me! Oh, he's PISSED!_

She fanned herself when she felt nervous tears coming to her eyes, exhaled loudly and then faced her father again.

"OK! OK! Look, this is the thing… I-I… I got engaged to Scott Summers and we were going to get married… but then… but then we broke up instead."

"Because you got pregnant? IS HE NOT TAKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR THIS?"

"No. He didn't _know_ I was pregnant. I didn't even know I was pregnant! We… we broke it off because… because it wasn't working anymore."

"But it was working enough for you to have unprotected sex?"

"Dad! It _wasn't_ unprotected sex, alright? It… It… Ugh! It's… it's complicated, OK?"

"Doesn't sound like it to me!" Virgil spat, barely able to keep himself from standing up and storming out of the living room. "You either love or you don't love a person, and if you don't love them enough, you DON'T sleep with them and you most definitely DON'T marry them!"

"Dad, please…"

"And, why is it that you slept with Stark if you were dating this man? Is that what you did when I was gone? Sleep around with everyone?"

"No, Dad! Listen…"

"And you!" he pointed to Tony. "I trusted you with my daughter's safety and this is what you do? You sleep with her and then let this man take advantage of her?

"That's not exactly what happened," Tony began but was interrupted by the redhead.

"Dad, no one took advantage of me," she held her head between her hands, rubbing her temples when she felt the onset of a headache coming to her. "It's not Tony's fault, alright? I… I…"

"You, what?" Virgil asked. "What ELSE did you do, Patricia? Drop out of college? Pick up a venereal disease? Are you a professional whore now?"

"That's enough, Mr. Potts," Tony said in a serious tone despite how truly scared he felt about how Virgil was reacting to the news. "I know you're her father and all, but I'm _not_ letting you talk to her like that. Least of all in my house – in _our _home. Whatever happened… It's a really long story that is pointless to tell now. All that's important now is that Pepper is having a baby, and that all of us who care about her are going to help her."

To Pepper and Tony's surprise, Virgil narrowed his eyes at the inventor and then stood up to point a finger at him.

"You, of _all_ people, have _no_ right to say that you care about my daughter. You let her date this man who got her pregnant after _you_ had a piece of her, too!"

Tony narrowed his eyes at Virgil and stood up as well, and as he was about to respond to the man, Pepper got up too and stood between her father and her friend.

"Dad, Tony didn't _let_ me do anything. He's not responsible or in charge of what I do or don't do, and neither are _you_. This was my decision and my mistake and neither you nor Tony or ANYONE ELSE is responsible for it other than me. This is _my_ life, Dad. And if I screwed it up, then so be it."

"But, Patricia, how can you even _accept_ help from someone who didn't care enough about you to…"

"He did, Dad," Pepper replied as she rested her left palm on her father's chest and held Tony's right hand with her own to make sure he also stayed in place.

"He did care, I just… I was just too stupid to see it then," she said as more tears began forming in her eyes and her voice began to crack. "He tried to tell me. He-he wanted me to understand… I just… I didn't listen… just as I never listened to you when you told me to stay away from your office at home… or to stop hacking the FBI database."

The redhead then closed her eyes when she felt even more tears come to her and her chest began to hurt for holding back sobs.

"I know I've disappointed you, Dad," she sniffled, fists now shaking at her sides, head hung. "I know you raised me better than this… I know you expected me to do things right…"

"Pepper…" Tony placed a hand on her shoulder. "Don't get too upset now… the baby…"

"I'm fine!" she spat and then regarded her father again. "I mean," she sighed as she looked over her shoulder to stare at the inventor. "I-I'm sorry, Tony, can… can you give us a minute alone, please?"

"Sure, Pep," he said, no trace of anger on his face despite her yelling at him just now, and he removed his hand from her. "I'll go do… something…" he added and then slid his way out from between the ginger and the couch.

As he walked over to the balcony, he called on his suit. By the time the locks were removed, he had already suited up. He left the apartment a second after that. Virgil, who had never seen him call on the suit like that, was not able to hide his surprise.

"How did he do that?"

"Long story," she said with a sad smile as she wiped her tears away. "But he can control computers with his mind."

"He, w-what?"

Pepper chuckled and then fell back onto the couch. She grabbed a tissue and cleaned her face with it before she faced her father, who by now was sitting next to her on the same couch, a look of regret on his face. He then pulled Pepper to his chest and hugged her as they both cried for a while, repeatedly apologizing to each other for how they had reacted just now. After they finally calmed down, Virgil pulled away from her and stared directly at her eyes.

"OK, Pepper," he said. "I'm ready to listen now."

xxxXXXxxx

Virgil Potts had neither stayed at the apartment for long nor had he remained retired either. Shortly after coming to terms with the fact that his daughter was no longer a little girl – and that she was having a little one of her own – Virgil and Howard had had a long talk that had ended with the former FBI-man accepting the position of Head of Security at Stark International. The job came with his own apartment at the large tower, and despite how uncomfortable he had felt about it at first, it had not taken him long to get adjusted to what he would now call his new home.

Rhodey had taken the news about Pepper's pregnancy better than Virgil but worse than Roberta and Howard, and after hours of lecturing the inventor and the redhead over the phone, their argument had ended with a warning that if either of them screwed it up, he was going to personally go War Machine all over their asses. Tony had scoffed and Pepper had given Rhodey a sad smile. _"Not if I hack it first, James,"_ the ginger had told him and, after a glare and a sigh of defeat from their friend, the three of them had laughed it out.

Getting used to having Tony around again had been another challenge for her, more than getting used to being pregnant and the morning sickness and general nausea and cravings that came with it. Most of their conversations up to now had been about fixing Stark Solutions, planning for the baby's arrival or about random, trivial chats that popped up throughout the day. Neither of them, however, had brought up the topic of them being together again at all. In fact, other than the thankful kiss they had shared at the hospital and some unplanned hand holding here and there while they watched television on their couch at night, not much physical contact had happened between them…

Until now.

It had not been for a lack of trying; and she was not sure how to react to it right now.

She had heard him open her bedroom door just seconds ago, just as he had done so many times in the past when they lived together the first time, but neither of them had been yet to resume their routine of sneaking into the other's room at night. The most they had gotten to resemble the relationship they had had in the past was going to Stark Solutions together to work, and she typically mostly stayed in his office throughout the day while he did the rounds and attended the meetings. Her office was yet to be cleaned of the prototypes he had buried her workplace furniture under, but she was in no hurry to have her executive position or office space back just yet. In fact, she was not sure when she would be able to return to normal duties after having the baby, and much less if she would be able to patrol the streets with him ever again. Things would definitely never be the same between them and they both knew it, but that did not necessarily mean that it was a bad thing in the least.

She took a deep breath to calm her nerves and she then shifted her position in the bed so that she was now facing up. His grip on her waist tightened. He leaned in closer to her, placed a chaste kiss on her exposed left shoulder, returned his head to the pillow he had brought with him from his room and then closed his eyes. She expected him to say something or make another move, but when she shortly after heard him start to lightly snore, she allowed herself to relax a little.

_Company: that's all he wants right now._

And she did not blame him for it; she wanted company, too. And if it was his company, that was even better for her.

She closed her eyes and sighed in both contentment and anticipation. She was truly relieved that he had been so patient with her until now, but she was not sure how much more patient he would be able to be. There had been many moments, since she had moved back in with him, where she had caught him staring at her with longing, and many others where she had almost responded to his silent invitations to move closer to her, to lean in to kiss him, or even to share more than just a bed at night. She had ignored most of them so far as best she could, but it was becoming increasingly difficult to say no to him because she knew she wanted it too.

_ "Please, let me do this. I __**need **__to do this…We… we __**need**__ to talk. We __**really**__ need to talk."_

_ Pepper sighed. "Tony, I don't think that –"_

_ Whatever excuse she was about to give died on her lips when he fell to his knees before her. He had done this in the past; it was not new to her, but that never made the gesture lose its meaning when it came from __**him**__. Many enemies of his had brought him down to his knees in pain or subjugation, but she knew that, this time, he was doing this out of his own free will and not because anything had forced him to do so._

_ "I'm sorry," he said, eyes on the floor, shoulders sagged, his arms at his sides – his defenses down. "I am __**so**__ sorry, for everything, Pepper," he added as he looked up at her. "I know saying sorry doesn't cut it. I know accepting I was a jerk and that I should've never lied to you in the first place doesn't cut it. But I don't think anything does at this point. I don't think anything ever will. But I don't know what else I could do or say to make you believe me. To make you __**understand **__how much it pains me to have hurt you, and how much I wish I hadn't put you through this at all."_

She opened her eyes again and looked to her left to stare at him as he slumbered. He was wearing his pajama pants and no shirt, just as she recalled he always did in the past. He was lying on his stomach, his left arm around her belly and his right arm underneath the pillow, crumpling it into a distorted shape that she assumed helped him better adjust his neck. His mouth was partially opened and his breathing was even despite the minor snores, and as she had just looked away from him, he mumbled in his sleep.

"Pepper."

Her head snapped to her left again and she expected him to say something else or maybe even move, but when five more minutes passed and he continued to be dead to the world, she sighed and looked away. Even in his sleep, she never let him rest. Even in her own sleep, he never left her mind either.

_"It's not that easy, Tony," she said, hands clutched against her chest and her eyes staring above his head and towards the back wall. "It's not all just going to go away like that."_

_ "I know," he nodded in understanding as his eyes stared at her belly. "I don't expect it to. It's been a long time and a lot of things have happened. But, but…"_

_ "But, what?" she asked and then made the mistake of staring at him when her eyes still looked as if she were inviting him to move forward with whatever he wanted to do. Before she could switch the way she was gazing at him, before she could put a stop to his moves, the blue-eyed boy leaned closer to her while still keeping his knees firmly planted on the floor._

_ "But," he began as he grabbed her hands in his, laced their fingers together, placed them at the sides of her legs and then carefully rested the left side of his face on her lap. "We can try."_

They _could_ try. But they never would try if they never did actually _start_.

She slowly shifted her body again so that she now rested on her left side. She then slid the back of her right hand down his cheek and, not a second after that, she pressed her lips against his.

His eyes fluttered open and he whispered her name, obvious confusion all over his face as he pulled back from her with a creased brow. It took him a moment to realize what had just happened and then his eyes opened wide. She giggled lightly, nodded and bit her bottom lip before she leaned closer to his face and kissed him on the lips again. This time, he kissed back.

Not a nanosecond after that, he adjusted his position so that he now lay on his right side. His left arm enveloped her waist and his right hand held onto her neck, pressing her face and body towards him as much as he could. The redhead then chuckled in amusement when he stopped the kiss long enough to curse at a pillow that had suddenly and somehow gotten in between them, making him very angry at the rude intrusion of the inanimate object.

"Get the fuck out of here," he said and threw the offending pillow to the floor, causing in her even more laughter than she knew the silly gesture merited. She was not sure if it was a nervous laughter or a playful one, but he did not give her enough time to figure it out before he began kissing her again.

He was not certain how far she wanted to go tonight, so he kept his hands from roaming to compromising places on her body. If all she wanted was a long kiss, that was what he would give her. If all she wanted was a make out session, he was not one to say no to that. He was not going to pressure her to do something she was not ready to do, but he would also be ready for whatever she asked him to do no, matter what it was.

Unless, of course, she asked him to leave. _That_ he was NOT going to do ever again.

She broke the kiss momentarily to look into his eyes and smiled at him, happy to see that he was neither rejecting her nor pushing for more. This was just the pace she knew they both needed to reshape their relationship and reconnect, and she felt silly for waiting this long to give him the green light that he had most certainly been waiting for. From the look he was giving her, she could tell that the ball was currently in her court, and with a nod she acknowledged the notion and thanked him for understanding.

They kissed for a few more minutes after that, swapping positions here and there, and when she felt that sleep was finally coming to take her away, she smiled sheepishly at him, closed her eyes, bent her left arm under his back and rested her head on his chest. He reposed his chin atop her head and surrounded her shoulders with his right arm. His left arm rested on his stomach to lace his hand with her right one that was thrown over his tummy. Soon enough, he closed his eyes as well.

"_Tony, we… we can't just suddenly jump back to… to…"_

"_I know," he said, took her hands to his lips and kissed her knuckles. "One day at a time, Pep. Just, one day at a time. That's all I'm asking for."_

And they would.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** I have no idea if Pepper of IMAA has a middle name, so I just made one up :)


	4. Chapter 3

**A/N: **Sorry about the long time between updates. I've been so busy! But thank you for your patience. Here is some more Pepperony :)

**Guest Review Responses**

**pepperony4evah: Sad as it may sound, men NEVER take a kid that is not theirs as their own. Someday, someday they are gonna walk out! I hope the baby's Tony's or else she, well, loses it. Or else it could be that the baby is alien conceived by asexual means when some stupid alien wanted tony off by hurting her. **Alien babies? Huh…I hadn't thought about that ;) lol But in all seriousness, I think you're been a little unfair to men with that generalization. You may only know men that don't have the balls to stay when the kid is not theirs, but I only know men that have stayed (my uncle by marriage, i.e., he took on my aunt with four kids not his own – still together). So, I guess there are some that leave and some that stay.

**Guest: Haha loved the humour and pepperony in this chapter. Update soon please! **There is more humor coming as the story progresses. I'm not very good at writing humor since I prefer drama, so I'm glad I got a laugh out of almost everyone with the last chapter.

**Toni: Hi. Never actually watched IMAA but I've been diligently reading your chronicles. Great stories by the way and your cliffhangers keep me coming back for more! Read recent chapters and couldn't help but play detective and revisit the '2nd Year' to determine the date Pepper's baby was conceived and it was between the months of June/July...after her split from Scott...o_O next thing i know I'm thoroughly doing research on Extremis...now this detective has a headache ;)** Good work, Detective ;) The Second Year did end in June. In fact, Chapter 10 and the Epilogue for The Second Year happened in June, and then we see Pepper again on August 14th (Prologue for The Third Year) being told she's pregnant. What happened in between? :P What are your theories on that?

**Guest: wow.. now I can see that the story is taking a whole new turn.. but still I am feeling sad and disappointed about Pepper carrying Scott's child... i hope its just a dream...! :) **But, but, if it's just a dream…then Tony and Pepper wouldn't be back together, right? ;)

**And to everyone else that reviewed: you are all the best! Thank you!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 3: October<strong>

He could not stop staring at her. She was mere inches from him, taking about three-fourths of his own bed, stretched all over the place as if she was the only one on it – which left him curled up in a tiny ball by the foot of the bed. The bed sheets were tangled all over her body, and he just could not get mad at her for it. It actually made him smile.

She had come to him in the middle of the night, crying aloud and sobbing. He had been worried sick at first, and he had been afraid that something terrible had happened to her or the baby. But when she partially spoke and partially whined that she had had a nightmare that the baby was born with tiny horns and hot pink sunglasses, he knew she had just had a bad dream; _another _bad dream.

At least she was no longer dreaming about Whitney, Ghost or the Maggia, right?

According to the pregnancy book he had been secretly reading when she was asleep or he was at work, the upcoming second trimester of pregnancy was going to be an interesting one. The nightmares of weird births would increase, but her nausea and morning sickness would decrease. The stomach pains would increase due to her body stretching to adjust for the growing baby but, in return, the little life inside of her would start to move around and let him or herself be known. Her hormones were still going to be on overdrive, but not as much as before; not to the point that she would cry a river because she walked to the kitchen and forgot what she had gone there for in the first place.

On the other hand, she was going to start gaining a considerable amount of weight. He could already hear her groaning in the mornings that her clothes were starting to _shrink_. It was only a matter of time before she would drag him with her to the mall to start buying maternity clothes – and he could not wait for that. She would probably end up just sitting in a wheelchair (he had already thought about bringing out the Pep Ride, if needed) since she had started to become breathless much easier. One would have never thought that this woman had, at some point in her life, spent hours and days fighting crime with him; she could not walk to the bathroom now without feeling as if she had just finished a 5K marathon.

He had been extremely apprehensive, at first, when her symptoms were turning out to be so heightened. A few talks with Dr. Ross and Pepper's OB/GYN, however, had been enough for him to understand that all pregnancies were different. Some women never felt Braxton-Hicks contractions until much later in the pregnancy – some never at all – and Pepper had felt them way before they were to be considered in the normal range. So far, it appeared as if the redhead's pregnancy was going to be one of extremes.

More than a handful of times up to now, she had cried herself to sleep in his arms, confessing to him that she was afraid that her baby would end up being rejected by the world if he or she turned out to be a noticeable mutant. To be honest with himself, he also feared that too, and the more extreme her symptoms became, the more he was afraid that Pepper's baby would end up becoming a curse rather than a blessing. He knew that Pepper would love her baby no matter what, and he would continue to be there for the two of them even if the baby _was_ in fact born with tiny horns and hot pink sunglasses, but for the sake of his ginger, he really hoped the baby turned out to be alright.

He yawned away the rest of his sleep and slowly climbed out of the bed. Pepper was due to visit her obstetrician today for an ultrasound that would become the first picture of the baby, which she could not wait to add to the album she had been making of every step of the way. She had been using the scrapbooking kit Roberta Rhodes had given her as a gift when she had left the hospital a long time ago. Thus far, she had been doing a pretty good job of capturing the most important moments of her pregnancy; just as the one he was going to help her out with today.

He walked over to his bathroom to freshen up. Once he felt awake and aware enough, he returned to the bed. He began to slowly adjust her body so that she was on only one side of the bed, like a normal human being, and he then climbed onto the other side; the left side – the one that was his. He began massaging her scalp and then moved his way down to her neck and shoulders, and by the time he pulled his hands away from her, she was already half awake.

"It's time to get up, Pep," he whispered into her ear. "Unless you don't want to shower before we go to the doctor."

"I don't want to get up," she mumbled and pulled on the blanket to cover more of her, still feeling tired as hell. "Can she, like, do the ultrasound right here… while I sleep?"

"She probably could," he replied as he lazily combed her hair with his fingers. "But I don't think it'd be as comfortable for you or even sterile enough to count. Come on, baby," he kissed her cheek, "We have to get ready."

"Noooo," she moaned dejectedly and clenched her eyes. "I don't wanna get up! The baby doesn't wanna get up."

Tony smiled, rolled his eyes, pulled away from her and then sighed in an exaggerated matter.

"Oh, well. I guess I'm gonna have to throw away those waffles I was thinking of making you today."

"Waffles?" she said and immediately sat up in the bed, her eyes blinking fast and her nose slightly wrinkled as she tried to smell the delicious scent of her morning craving for the past weeks. "I don't smell any waffles!"

"That's because I haven't made them yet," he reasoned. "But since you're not getting up…"

"Ugh!" she groaned and began sliding herself off the bed with his help, angrily throwing the blanket off her body. "You play a mean game, Stark! I swear, one day it will be _you _who has cravings and I'm gonna deny them all to you!"

"I'll be prepared," he said without missing a beat, guided her to the bathroom, where she pointedly glared at him before she slammed the door closed, and he then shrugged and chuckled in response.

He walked out of the bedroom and headed to the kitchen to take out the ingredients for making waffles from scratch, and he silently thanked the internet for hosting videos of how to make the only food she could digest in the morning.

Back in the bathroom, Pepper eyed the vanity with partially closed eyes. She yawned loudly, scratched the top of her head and then reached over to grab her toothbrush. Before she was to put any paste on it, however, she stared at it with a questioning glance.

_When did my toothbrush end up here?_

Still with a confused look on her face, she began eyeing all around her, slowly realizing that it had not been only her toothbrush that had found its way from her bedroom to his. Some of her favorite towels were also here, and so was her makeup bag and hair straightener. She then walked over to the tub and slid the curtain open only to see that her shampoo, conditioner, body wash and bath sponge were also neatly arranged in the corner rack that Tony had bought for them last week.

_For us_, she recalled. _Bought it for us._

She returned to the mirror, and as she mechanically began to go through the motions of brushing her teeth, she noticed that she was not even wearing her own pajamas. She was wearing the tiny t-shirt Tony had given her back when her first undercover mission at _The Rotary_ had gone bad and he had ended up having to flush from her body the date rape drug she had been given. Underneath it, she was wearing only her undergarments and nothing more.

_Is this how I came to his bed last night?_

And every other night she had ended up here?

She finished brushing her teeth, undressed, and as she threw her dirty clothes inside the hamper, she noticed that the garments inside of it were not only Tony's but also hers. In fact, if she were to estimate the percentages of clothes ready to be cleaned that were inside the basket, she could easily state that they would be equally representative of both of their apparels.

When had this become the norm around here?

Returning to the apartment to live with him seemed as if it had occurred a long time ago. In reality, it had been little over a month. In fact, next week would mark six weeks since she had officially moved back, and it would also signify a few weeks since she had started opening up to him again. Despite the short time that had transpired since her return, she felt as if she – as if _they_, had been doing this all along: as if the last year when they had gone their separate ways had not even occurred. Nonetheless, she knew it _had_ taken place, and the only proof she needed was her just slightly swollen belly.

She started the shower and waited a moment for the hot water to come out. Once it did, she started the cold water and adjusted them both until the water felt just right. She slid open the shower curtain, walked inside, closed the curtain, gave her back to the stream of water, and felt her muscles relax almost immediately. She closed her eyes and exhaled deeply, and as her mind began to wander, she again began thinking about how close she and Tony were becoming to being considered a couple again, even if they did not call each other that aloud.

Some of her clothes were already hanging from his closet or were kept inside his drawers, mixed with his, and other than pretending to use her bedroom to go to bed, she hardly ever used it anymore. If Tony did not end up inviting himself over to her bed at night, she would simply invite herself over to his, and even though she knew that he was more than willing to do more than just kiss and cuddle, he had been very careful not to force anything to happen between them.

Just as it had happened that night, a few weeks ago, disregarding his silent solicitations was just about unbearable for her now. Even though she could probably blame it on the increased sex drive the current stage of her pregnancy was giving her, she had to admit that, deep inside, she actually longed for those intimate moments with him as much as she knew he did. She had not been jesting when she had told him that their first night together had been great for her, and she wondered that if her father had not been listening in to their highly inappropriate banter, would they have talked about it in more detail then.

Their first time together had been rather unexpected, and the aftermath had left them with very little time to talk about it or doing anything else for that matter. She had not spoken to him for a week after that encounter and, when she had done so, it had only been to exchange information during the final stakeout before her memories – all of them – had returned to her. The next time she had seen him in person after being together that night had been for her just to tell him she was leaving him and moving out.

There had been no opportunity whatsoever for them to develop the intimacy that had been started that night, and even today, when there was nothing else to lose and Maya and Scott were long gone and practically out of the picture, they were yet to resume their relationship where they had left off. Most of it was her fault, actually, and while she wanted to pretend that nothing had gone bad and that nothing had changed, it would be childish of her to try to imagine she lived in a world where she and Tony had never been apart; had never hurt each other, and had never almost completely destroyed what they had once had together. And yet, in spite of all that, Tony was doing an excellent job of overlooking her mistakes and current situation and he was trying his best to reconnect with her – all at _her_ own pace.

Why was she not letting him go further?

Pepper scoffed at the thought. She knew very well why, and if he knew why too, he would probably stop any and all advances on her, right now.

_Or would he? He's really not one to talk!_

She inwardly groaned at her own question; she had no response to it anyway.

"Pep?" he called to her from the door. Speak of the devil.

"Hn?" she said, eyes closed.

"How much longer are you going to be? I'm heating up the waffle iron, but I don't want to start them until you're ready."

She opened her eyes again and thought about his question while she looked down at herself. All she had done so far had been to just stand under the shower. Although she was completely soaked, she was yet to wash her hair or even soap her body. All she had done up to this point was sulk about her life and her decisions and think about when and how half of her belongings had ended up making their home in his room – _their_ room.

_Our room_, she thought and, for the briefest of moments, she felt like a silly, teenaged girl with a crush again. She may have just turned twenty a few months ago, but she guessed that it was never too late to feel silly when in love.

Why did she even have a room of her own at this point, anyway?

"Pepper? Are you OK?" he took a step inside the bathroom, concerned that she was yet to answer his last questions at all. He had witnessed before how the idea of eating freshly-made waffles made her get up and about, so her currently not even responding to his questions with complete sentences was odd to him.

"Honey, are you falling asleep in there?"

_Honey_, she repeated in her head and a smile came to her face. How could _one _word, one _simple_ word, make her feel butterflies in her stomach? Or maybe it was just that the baby had finally started moving around in there?

"Seriously, Pep, is everything OK in there?"

His voice was practically next to her, and a quick peek from the edge of the curtain where she stood under the shower stream allowed her to see that he was now standing right outside the tub, frowning and scratching his head in confusion. She held back a mischievous giggle, and after throwing caution to the wind while her eyes were still spying on his form, she replied.

"No, it's not."

His frown deepened and she saw his hand reach over to the opposite edge of the curtain she was watching him from. His fingers held onto the fabric for a second, but he then shook his head and pulled back his hand. He again scratched his head, faster this time, and she could tell that he was becoming even more nervous by the second.

"What's wrong?"

She slowly made her way to the edge of the curtain where he was standing, and before he could react to her move, she partially opened the curtain, pulled his face to hers by the neck and kissed him. Just as the many times she had surprised him like this, his entire body tensed for a second, and then it immediately melted and followed her lead. The kiss lasted for no more than a minute, and when she finally pulled away and stared at his shocked face, she gave him an impish smile.

His eyes blinked fast and he tried to keep his gaze from traveling down her naked form while he swallowed hard to gather his wits. He exhaled in shaky breaths and licked his lips before words finally made their way out of his mouth.

"What… what's wrong?"

Her _physical_ response was to pull him closer to her again by curling her left fingers around the back of his neck, while her right hand began undoing the cords of his pajama pants. Her _verbal_ response to his inquiry immediately followed her actions.

"You're not in here."

xxxXXXxxx

After showering _together_, getting dressed, and having breakfast, the pair found themselves driving to the private location where Pepper would get the ultrasound done. Sadly, it was too early to determine the baby's sex, but it was about the right time to perform other tests on him or her to see how healthy he or she was up to now. Pepper had been following all of the recommendations her obstetrician had been giving her, but her symptoms and pregnancy side-effects refused to lower in intensity so far, such as the one that was currently affecting her.

The doctor had assured her that stomach cramps were normal in new moms since their bodies were stretching for a growing baby for the first time, but that did not make the spasms any less painful. In fact, at this very moment, as they were heading to meet up with said doctor, even Tony wanted some relief from the woes of pregnancy that ultimately affected him as well; such as how his right hand was currently being crushed by Pepper's left hand.

"I think we should seriously consider those Lamaze classes, Pep."

"You… you think?" Pepper asked in a sarcastic tone as she tried breathing through the pain, but found that it was not helping. Her right hand was holding onto the roof handle of Tony's car and her left hand was still overpowering his Extremis-enhanced muscles in his right hand.

_Good thing I only need one hand to drive_, he thought as he too avoided screaming in pain at how hard the ginger was squeezing his hand. If he did not have Extremis in him, he was certain that he would have lost his entire arm by now. Despite the pain, though, he still somehow managed to lift her hand to his mouth and kissed it, causing in her a small smile he immediately returned.

"I'm sorry, Tony. I-I know it's not your fault."

Tony shook his head at her to let her know he was not even taking her anger seriously and then gave her another kiss on her hand. Minutes later, Pepper was finally able to relax when the cramps subsided, but neither of them let go of the other's hand.

She was still partially in shock at having shared a shower with the inventor just hours ago, especially since it entailed seeing him with nothing on again – something she really had not had many opportunities to do in the past – and based on the way he had been staring at her and had uttered her name in delight, she was pretty sure that he had been entranced by it, too. Her eyes still practically danced and her pores still tingled as she remembered how intense the entire experience had been, even though they had not actually engaged in sex.

He had had no qualms, though, about carrying her and pressing her back against the shower wall, her legs tightly wound around his waist, but he had been reluctant to do more than just engage in intense foreplay. Even though he had heard and had read that sleeping with Pepper would not hurt the baby, he was starting to believe that everything about this pregnancy was so off that the odds that he did end up somehow hurting her or the baby were probably too high.

That did not mean, however, that he could not do other things for her.

And he had.

And the thought about it right now and the recollection of hearing her say his name between pants and moans in his ear while her nails had dug into his neck, shoulders and back, triggered in him shivers that ran down his spine… and other things that he probably should not allow to happen right now.

That was a good way to start the day, though; he would not deny that.

He turned the car to enter the parking lot and was happy to find it deserted, for the most part. The appointment had been scheduled on a Sunday in a facility that only opened Monday through Friday, and all as part of the efforts to keep the pregnancy a secret as long as possible. Scott was yet to decide what his involvement with the baby would be, although he had been sending gifts to Pepper any chance he had to help with the process. Last week, the redhead had received a box with several maternity items, such as the socks she sometimes wore at night that help reduce swollen ankles.

_At least he's trying_, Tony stopped the motion of the car. He then exited the vehicle, rounded the front of it, and by the time he arrived at the passenger's seat, the ginger was already halfway out while she rolled her eyes at him.

"Tony, I'm pregnant, not disabled. I can get out of the car."

"I know," he shrugged but still grabbed her hand in his to help her balance herself and then closed the door behind her. "I'm just trying to be a gentleman, and you're kinda not letting me be one for you."

"I didn't fall for you for being a gentleman," she responded with a chuckle. When she then repeated her words in her mind and she saw the smug look on his face and the wink he gave her, she could not help to blush. "Uhm, I mean… uhm…"

She felt like an idiot right now: blushing at something so simple and that had already been previously disclosed, especially after what they had done hours ago without batting an eye. She figured it was either due to her crazy hormones or due to the fact that they were yet to give a name to what they had. For her, it felt as if he was somehow courting her before asking her to be his girlfriend, which made her feel as if she was an active participant in the initial romance part of liking someone but taking baby steps to get somewhere with them.

_Girlfriend_, she thought for a second and had to stop herself from rolling her eyes at the term that would have previously shaken her heart. Girlfriend or boyfriend did not really begin to describe what they were and, perhaps, the word for what they were to each other was yet to be invented. They were not husband and wife, or fiancés, or a simple couple, or just plain lovers. They were friends, yes, but there was more to it than that, and everyone who knew them was aware of it. Significant others, maybe? Partners? Other halves? Friends with benefits?

Yeah; she could not think of the word right now.

Seeing that she had nothing else to say, he led her out of the parking lot and to the back entrance of the building to see that the doctor's vehicle was already there. The nurse that would assist during the procedure was also already present. Upon seeing them, she immediately ran to the door to unlock it and let the couple inside. The woman greeted them both with a bright smile and then, to Tony's disappointment, she asked him to sit tight and wait outside while Pepper was seen.

"I can't come in with her?" he asked with a frown, his hand still holding onto the redhead's. "I promise I won't get in the way."

"Not for the first part of the examination, I'm afraid," the nurse responded. "But as soon as the actual ultrasound begins, and if Miss Potts allows, you can then come inside."

Tony's shoulders sagged and his frown deepened – and almost turned into a pout – until Pepper squeezed his hand and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. The gesture made the genius smile a little but his eyes still showed that he was upset that he could not go in with her just yet. The nurse, sensing that perhaps they needed a minute alone, decided to go inside the examination room and closed the door behind her.

"It's better for you to wait until I'm set up," Pepper reasoned, her left hand finding his cheek while her right one still held on to his.

"Why?" he shrugged. "It's not as if, you know, I haven't seen you… like that… before."

Pepper felt her face grow hot again and she looked away, exhaling slowly to control the blush she could already feel forming at the base of her neck.

"It's… it's not that, Tony. It's, uhm, well… she-she… you may not like what you see… it, ahem. It might gross you out."

"Gross me out?" his head recoiled. "Why would it gross me out? Hearing you throw up every morning for weeks didn't gross me out. How can this be any worse?"

"It's, uhm… It's girl stuff."

"Oh," he said, looked down for an instant, but he then furrowed his brow and stared at her again with a doubtful look. "Wait, are you trying to make me uncomfortable with 'girl stuff'? Because that's not gonna fly… anymore."

Pepper rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"OK, fine! Look, let's make a deal."

"What deal?"

"How about you sit this one out and just come inside when the ultrasound happens. I have to come back in two months to determine the baby's sex, so that leaves you with plenty of time to research what these _examinations_ entail. If, after reading it, you _still _want to go inside with me, then I'll let you come in. What do you say?"

Tony pursed his lips, thought about her suggestion for a moment, and then nodded.

"Sounds like you've got yourself a deal, Miss Potts."

"Very well, Mr. Stark," she smiled and he then sealed the deal by kissing her knuckles. She chuckled and shook her head playfully. As she was about to walk away, he pulled her back to him, held her face in his hands and gave her a long kiss.

Pepper kissed him back and held onto the sides of his shirt. A second after the kiss ended – when the nurse that had just returned to collect her, cleared her throat – Tony stole another quick kiss and whispered to her.

"I love you, Pep."

The redhead mouthed it back.

xxxXXXxxx

He was flying as fast as he could in the direction of his destination. He was on a short timetable and he only had a few minutes to fulfill his mission and return home. There could be no mistakes, no delays and no option to fail. He had one goal and one goal only, and everything in his world depended on him successfully completing this assignment in the blink of an eye.

He saw the location in question from his position in the sky and it did not take him more than half a nanosecond to land before its entrance. He rushed inside, stared left and right, ignored the fact that he was not alone in this quest, and began searching for his targets.

One by one, he found almost all of what he needed, leaving but one final step to complete. He was getting much better at this, and if he said so himself, he was kind of proud that he had outdone his last attempt at completing the objective with better accuracy than before. There was a learning curve to all of this, and he had always known this to be the case. That had never stopped him, however, from practicing the best maneuvers before the actual execution took place and, after much researching, he had finally found this site to be the only location where all his needs would be met.

His final target was in sight and he did not give the man a chance to blink. He rushed over to him, dumped all of the items on the counter and spoke.

"I'm in a hurry," he began. "Do you think a hundred would cover it?"

The man, who was still in shock at the scene unfolding before him, slowly looked down at the items for a moment and then nodded.

"Yeah, but I'd owe you change."

"Keep it," he responded, left the bill on the counter, placed all of the items inside the reusable bag he had brought, and left the establishment as quickly as he had arrived, leaving behind in his wake a very confused convenience store clerk who had just sold a bunch of junk food to Iron Man.

xxxXXXxxx

"Tony!" the ginger said between giggles. "That tickles!"

"Well, I'd be done by now if you stopped moving!" he said, also chuckling himself as he held a black marker in his hand. "Come on, Pep! Just stop moving and we'll be done, OK?"

"OK," she said before another fit of laughter hit her when Tony's fingertips brushed her belly and he just scoffed in exasperation. He sighed loudly and waited for her to finish laughing and, once she did, he was finally able to place and date the mark on the wall.

"There you go!" he said with pride and took a step back to admire his handiwork. He knew there were better devices he could have used or even built from scratch to tally the growth of Pepper's baby bump, but she had insisted on using the wall in her former room – future nursery – to do so.

"Don't move, Pepper," he told her. "Let me take the picture."

"Alright," she said and stayed as put as she could while Tony grabbed his pod from his back pocket and snapped the photograph. He then sent it wireless to the printer and, once he gave her a thumbs-up, she ran out of the room and toward the printer located in the small office space by the living room. Seconds later, she returned with the picture he had just taken of her, and she wasted no time to add it to the scrapbook.

Tony watched her as she carefully inserted the picture in the frame she had created for it in the pregnancy album she had been working on. Once she was done, and a wide smile formed on her face, the inventor walked over to her and held her waist from behind. Pepper rested her back against his chest and her hands on his arms, and closed her eyes when he began placing kisses down her neck and shoulder.

He did not allow his gesture to be the start of anything other than just a short moment of showing her attention since their pizza would soon be delivered, but that did not mean that he had not wanted to keep going down the path her moans were taking him. He switched sides on her neck and repeated the process. As he was pulling away from her, his pod begun to ring and they both frowned when they recognized that the sound they were hearing was not one of a call or a text message, but of the notification of an assignment.

Iron Man was needed. ASAP.

Pepper turned around in place and watched him with concerned eyes as he took out his pod from his pocket again and read the summary of the mission. His eyes widen in shock for a second, but when he remembered that the redhead was staring at him with intent eyes, worry all over her features already, he tried to play it cool for her.

"I've got this," he said with a smile. "I'll be back before the pizza cools down."

"What is it, Tony? WHO is it?"

"Don't worry about it. It'll be easy," he said, took a step back from her, but she immediately pulled him back by surrounding his waist with her arms. He looked down at her already teary-eyed face, and even though going on missions was not something new to her, he knew that sending him off alone – no Rescue and no War Machine – set her on edge due to her state.

"Who is it, Tony? If it's so easy, then tell me."

Tony swallowed hard, briefly closed his eyes and then opened them once more to speak.

"It's Rhona, Pep. Rhona Erwin."

xxxXXXxxx

He had thought that the mission would be easy – he really had, but when the escapee of the Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane proved to him that she had been spending her time away from him rather wisely, he had begun to sweat.

He was currently down on the ground, on one knee, breathing hard to catch his breath and staring down the barrel of one of Rhona's latest inventions. He was not sure what she had called it, and he did not really care. All he cared about was that she had been watching him from afar for the past few years, and that she had designed weapons to specifically target his tech.

"Where are we on the schematics, Pep? I kinda need them before she hits me with that thing again and completely disables my suit!"

_"I'm working as fast as I can, Tony,"_ the redhead responded via the internal communication system. _"I've hacked into her files three times already, but she keeps kicking me out!"_

"I don't have much time, Pepper. I don't mean to be a prick about it, but can you hurry up?"

xxxXXXxxx

"I know, Tony! I'm trying!" she retorted and strained herself to not let her shaky hands slow her down. She had been watching Tony's fight with Rhona via TV for the past hour and it had been nothing but torture for her, especially since she was not even at the temple where she could do more for him than just being a bundle of nerves at seeing the dark-haired young woman using everything she had against her blue-eyed boy.

Tony kept a few laptops and some Iron Man business devices at home, but none of them were proving to be sufficiently suitable for this particular mission. The closest she had gotten to assisting him had been connecting to the temple's servers via her pod, and even that was proving to be useless since Rhona Erwin had accounted for that to be the case as well.

_"How the hell is she doing this?" _Tony asked over her earpiece. _"How is she hacking our fucking servers, and my suit? HOW the hell is she blocking out my Extremis?"_

"I don't know, Tony," Pepper said with a shake of the head he could see via the webcam connection she had just started with him and continued her task. "I-I really don't know. I… ugh! DAMMIT!" she slammed her hands on the dining table in desperation when her attempt at sending another suit to him via remote failed again.

_"Oh, shit! She's getting ready to fire that damned thing again!"_

"Leave, Tony!" the redhead pleaded him for the twentieth time, her hands again restarting the sequence to override the intrusion Rhona Erwin had managed to complete on the software that controlled all-things Iron Man. "Just leave, please!"

_"I __**can't **__leave, Pepper,"_ he told her as he tried to get up and at least become a difficult target for the incoming Goth girl. _"My thrusters are shot!"_

"Then shoot her ass!" Pepper suggested.

_"With what? My defense systems are down! She fried them all!"_

"No!" Pepper screamed as her ensuing attempt at helping her genius boy failed again. How was this even happening? How could this be real? Had they not been carefree, laughing together, just a couple of hours ago? Had they not just been talking about what they would do for Halloween this year? How had Rhona's preparations against him remained under the radar for so long?

It had all started out looking easy, not at all ostentatious, and had definitely not shown signs of how atrocious it would quickly become. Rhona Burchill – or Rhona Erwin as Team Iron Man had known her while attending the Academy and continued to refer to her – had shown her face in downtown New York, just another unknown person in the crowd, until she had begun triggering the bombs she had been planting for weeks. The commotion had called the immediate attention of the media and the authorities, and they had all thought that they had been dealing with a demented girl that was trying to play terrorist for the fun of it. Their initial plan had been to use tear gas on her to slow her down, but she had just kept walking and moving, completely unaffected by the chemical attack.

Weapon usage had immediately followed when she had begun firing at them, and the police had been left with no option but to bringing in the heavy artillery then. She had taken no hostages, which meant they did not have to hold back, but when the woman had had a technological response to stop all of their attempts at ending her angry rampage of destruction, they had called Iron Man.

That had been her hope; that the men before her that she considered unskilled and unworthy of partaking in the execution of her plan called in the man in the gold and red suit of armor. He was her real target, after all, and she had not spent the last few years of her life preparing for this moment to not get a chance to carry out her deed as it should be.

One attack had led to another, and before Tony had known what had hit him, he was nearly down for the count. The assaults Rhona was executing were merciless, practically flawless, and filled with a solution to almost anything Tony had thrown her way. Needless to say, it had taken the superhero duo by surprise.

_I have to do this_, the redhead thought as her hands alternated between both of the keyboards of Tony's and her laptops and of her pod to try to override Rhona's command on their servers once and for all. _I have to do something for him!_

She had been trying to take back control of their resources since Tony had realized that their system had been compromised, but so far neither she nor the inventor or their combined attempts at kicking out Rhona's intricately created malware had had any luck. It was as if she had somehow been studying their upgrades and latest technology developments and had then done nothing else other than developing the perfect code to hit them where it would hurt them the most.

This type of attack did not take just a few weeks or months to be conceived, as it was evident in its complexity and current success that she must had been working on it day and night since her failed attempt at the Tomorrow Academy.

It was payback time.

"_Pep?"_ the inventor's weary voice resounded in her ear as he was yet again hit with one of Rhona's suit-incapacitating rays_. "Pepper, I… I don't think I'm gonna make it out of this one. I'm sorry."_

"No, Tony!" she said and tried to ignore the feeling of dread that was invading her heart and mind and that she knew could very well make her lose out on the final attempt at recovering control over their tech that she had. "Don't say that! It's not over yet!"

xxxXXXxxx

"I… ah… I think it is," he said with a sad smile as he stared at her face on the screen of his helmet. "I… I can't move anymore."

"_Tony, please,"_ her cracking voice broke his heart. _"Get up, dammit! Get up and get out of there!"_

"I can't," he said and clenched his teeth as he tried his best to move an inch but failed. "I really can't."

"_Tony, no. Tony, please… Please… I… I c-" _the ginger's words were cut when his suit's communication HUD finally powered down completely and he lost contact with her. He closed his eyes for a second, sent her a final goodbye and apology he could only hope would somehow reach her, and prepared to meet his end.

He was now facing up, his suit practically shut down. His battery was running out, and his software refused to respond to his voice commands. He was trapped inside his armor, powerless to stop the slow steps Rhona was taking toward him, a bright smile on her face.

He was tired; exhausted, in fact, of trying to use Extremis to hack into his own systems to at least release himself from his armored tomb. Pepper had been trying to help him too; he knew that for a fact, but it appeared as if the brilliant but crazy Rhona Erwin would have the last laugh after all.

"Look at you, Anthony," the girl said as she began to close the distance between his fallen form and her standing one. "The smartest person on the planet is about to fall under the hands of who you thought was not on par with you. How does that feel, huh? How does it feel to be taken down by your own tech?"

"My… _my own_ tech?"

"Yes," she chuckled and pointed to the weapon she was currently holding in her hands. "This little number here is based on your negator packs. The ones you created to stop Force and Shockwave. Do you remember them? They were pathetic, the two of them."

_How the hell does she know about that?_ _It's impossible for her to know about those!_

"I knew that without your tech you were nothing – less than nothing, actually. I take away your suit and you have nothing to take me down. Nothing to stop what's coming to you. To _everyone_ you love."

_No_, the inventor refused to give her more ammunition to better enjoy her victory over him.

"You won't make it that far, Rhona. You _will_ be stopped!"

"By who?" the Mad Thinker asked with a shrug as she leaned down to his face when she finally stood above him. "War Machine? Rescue? I don't see them here right now."

"They aren't the only heroes in town."

"Perhaps," the girl said in a bored tone and then pressed the manual emergency unlatch button on Iron Man's neck and it immediately released the locks on the helmet. "But with you out of the picture, it doesn't matter what happens to me later. I really don't care if S.H.I.E.L.D. tries coming for me. I really don't care what they try to do to me."

"No," Tony groaned when Rhona pulled the entire helmet off his head and threw it over to the side. The look of insanity on her face was practically inhuman, and even though he was painfully aware that he was reaching the end of the road, he would not let her win without inflicting some kind of pain on her.

"Hey, Rhona? I want to ask you a question."

The woman was visibly taken aback by the sudden smug look on his face and his random request, but since she was certain that she had the upper-hand, the Mad Thinker decided to humor his wish.

"What is it, Anthony? What do you want to know before you die?"

If Tony could have shrugged, he would have, but he had to make due with only managing to scrunch his nose.

"Oh, just curious about one thing: where is Andy, anyway? Is he still as dead as I left him? Or have you since then made another pitiful pet to keep you company, huh?"

Rhona glared at Tony and his arrogant smile grew as he continued his verbal assault on her.

"Or was it too painful to make another Andy? Is that why you're trying to kill me? Because I put a hole in your fake brother's robotic stomach? That was a hell of a good shot, wasn't it? One for the books!"

"Shut up, Stark!"

"What?" the inventor continued. "Is it painful to remember? Is it sad that he DIED?"

"Shut it!" she screamed, pressed the weapon against his forehead and increased the level of power output on it. "This is going to fry your brain! This is going to kill you very, very, VERY painfully, Stark?"

"More or less painful than when Andy the Android died? Oh, wait! You can't answer that question because he was NOT real. He couldn't feel any pain!"

"I said shut up!"

"Or what? You're still gonna kill me! You're still gonna kill me because I killed your FAKE brother."

"No! That's not it!" Rhona spat. "You don't know a thing! You don't know why you're about to die!"

"You mean it's not because I broke your toy? Is it because you know I'll always be smarter than you?"

"NO!" the Goth girl screamed at the top of her lungs. "It's not because of that! It's because you have a target sign painted on your back!"

"What?"

"YES!_ Someone_ wants you dead, Stark. You have a price on your head," she held her finger against the trigger. "And so does _she_," she added with a sinister smile. "So does her_ ginger_ head."

Tony's eyes widened when he realized who she was talking about, and before he could come up with a retort and before she finished pressing the trigger on the gun, a newcomer caught them both by surprise.

The flash of purple and gray arrived out of thin air thanks to the stealth feature the suit possessed. By the time Rhona knew what had hit her, her body was already being pushed away from Tony and directed towards the alley that had been to Iron Man's left. Faster than it took him to realize what had just occurred, and seconds before he began panicking, a loud explosion occurred inside the alley, sending debris all over the place.

The flames escaped the narrow passage in every direction. With them and the continuing explosions, her form was thrown back into the streets. His eyes widened in fear when he saw Pepper hit the ground with her back, and it took him a moment to realize what she had just done; she had just risked her life for him, again.

"PEPPER!"

The inferno continued burning near him. In his immobilized state, all he could do was watch in horror as the random flares of fire threatened to reach her. She was slowly recovering consciousness and she had now begun to sit up. However, a moment after she shook her head to clear her ears from the explosion, another flare headed her way.

"NO!"

Tony tried his best to move, but his suit was as heavy as it had ever felt. His eyes followed the path of the flame, and it was then that he realized something was odd about the area around the ginger. When the fire never actually touched her or reached her at all and instead seemed to have reached an invisible barrier, it dawned on him that she was currently being protected by some kind of a shield.

_How?_

She blinked a few times and then got down on all fours as she recovered her breath. It had been difficult enough in her condition for her to do what she had just done, and she was glad that the force field around her was giving her a little bit of time to recuperate. She then held her head in her hands when she felt the world spinning around her, and despite the pain and nausea she was beginning to feel, she forced herself to look up at the inventor and sighed when she saw he was alright.

"Tony," she whispered before her shaking hand took out her pod from her pocket. She pressed a few buttons on it and, seconds later, Tony felt his armor beginning to open up. She eyed him for a few more seconds, and when she saw that he was now out of the suit and heading to her, she allowed herself to fall on her side and removed the shield her pod had been projecting for her.

"Pepper!" he cried out and skidded on his knees before her. He slowly flipped her over so that she faced up, held her in his arms, and she could barely keep her eyes open to stare at him.

"Pepper, _what_ did you do? _Why_ did you do that? I… I told you to stay behind!"

"I," she inhaled deeply. "I couldn't let her… kill you… I couldn't let her… let her…"

"Pepper, you idiot!" he kissed her forehead and caressed her face, briefly stared at the hot mess that was the alley where Rhona had been sent flying off, and then returned his attention toward his redhead. Her eyes began closing so he shook her, begging her to remain awake.

"Come on, Pep, stay with me. Don't fall asleep on me. How-how could you do this? How could you put yourself in danger like this? What did you do to her?"

Pepper gave him a smirk before she spoke.

"I blew up the bitch," she said with a satisfied smile. "I… I put her in my suit and blew her up."

Tony's eyes widened even more than before and he then looked back at the now dying fire.

"You… you put her in the suit? She's… she's dead?"

"Yes," her voice was merely a whisper. "I… I finally hacked the system… got my suit back online… flew here for you…"

"Pepper," Tony began and his eyes returned to her. "You… you shouldn't have come."

"How… could I have not?" she said as she felt her body shutting down. "How…could I not?"

The sound of the incoming fire department and ambulances was tuned out by him; his eyes never leaving her face as she finally closed her eyes and passed out.


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N: **Alright, guys. We're halfway done with this story. And don't you worry. Pepper is fine :)

**Guest Review Responses**

**pepperony4evah: I cant help thinking about what roberta asked tony whether his motivation to keep pepper & baby will be enough to keep them a last time. Hopefully it will. My uncle walked out on my cousin when she was 21 whom he too in when she was just several months old! In all honesty i feel terribly sorry for pepper. Being a young mom is gonna cost you your entire life. Its damn unfair that the guy can just walk away but the girl has to pay with her life for a mistake they both do together! I am guessing the child is . Either tony's or scotts kid cant be any normal since they both are mutants. Lots of typos. Damn Meant to say i am guessing the baby is not normal. Cant help but say, the biggest mistake tony ever did was to get pep a suit. She is impulsive and reckless than tony. **Girl, I feel you! Believe me, you and I can spend YEARS talking about those men that are allowed to screw up and walk away. If it were up to me…well, they would no longer be allowed to sleep with anyone ever again…or be called men anymore, if you know what I mean. But hey, that's why good men exist, to pick up the slack from jerks like that. I'm sorry about your aunt :( but you know what? TO HELL WITH HIM! Karma has a way of coming back to bite you in the ass and he's gonna get what he deserves.

**Aww...to cute, but knocked out again.. damn this girl is lucky to have so many lives.** I know! I want to be like her when I'm old and decrepit XD This time, though, she was smart about it. You'll find out exactly what she did in this chapter.

**yeah... i never thought about that... it should not be a dream... but I have a full faith in you that you will just clear up the mess created..:) by the way.. the story is going cool... and I infact really enjoyed THE SECOND YEAR... though i am a pepperony fan... and I must say that you should really write a novel or something...I am damn sure it would become the best seller..:)** You know, you're not the first one to tell me that and I'm honestly getting very encouraged to do so. Did you know that some writers today started out as fanfic writers here at FFNET? I was in shock! In fact, Amazon has a program where you can write fanfics for certain fandoms and both you and the original author (and Amazon, of course) get royalties for them. Nice, huh?

Welcome back to the Dark Side, _Arihimew_! You're gonna love it here :)

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 4: November<strong>

It was official. The secret was out: Pepper Potts was pregnant.

The rumor had started after Rhona's sudden appearance when one of the paramedics that had checked on Pepper's status had sold the information to the media. It had only taken that one person to give the details of what he had seen. Soon, the news had spread everywhere, and the assumptions and questions had been pouring in ever since.

Questions such as: When is she due? How far along is she? Was it planned? Is this why she moved out from her dorm at ESU? Is this why Scott Summers left? Who is the father? And, the most prominent question of all: is it Tony Stark's child? These questions and others had been surfacing everywhere, and the more Pepper and Tony refused to answer these inquiries, the more insistent the journalists became.

Some reporters had been very kind about the entire situation and had done nothing more than congratulate the redhead; some had even sent pregnancy preparation books to her. However, some less honorable ones were using the information for all it was worth, and one thing the inventor and the redhead had come to learn in their years in the spotlight was that lies, sex and scandals sold, especially when it was lies about sex scandals.

All everyone had been talking about for the past two weeks had been about the Potts pregnancy and what it meant for the company and Team Iron Man. No one had even discussed the fact that Tony had almost been killed by Rhona Erwin, or that Pepper had risked her life and her baby's to save the hero herself. No one had mentioned that the insane woman was still at-large, as proven by what had been left behind of the busted Rescue suit that Pepper had used on Rhona to kill her, which had shown that it had not been a human that Pepper had disposed of but an android – a Rhona-lookalike robot.

That had enraged both heroes to no end.

Tony had been angry because an on-the-loose Rhona meant that she could strike again at any time, and now that he knew that someone was out to get him and his girl, he was on high alert. He had upgraded all of his security systems, software, armors, pods and every piece of technology that surrounded them at home, work, the Temple and even at SI and the Rhodes' home. Even their bikes and cars had been equipped with all sorts of security sensors and defense systems so that not even on the road were they left unguarded against an unexpected attack.

He had just gotten his woman – _his_ woman – back, and there was no way in hell that he was going to make it easy for anyone to harm her. He had long ago come to terms with the fact that their lives would always be in danger but, in the end all, he cared about the most was to be with her and keep her safe by having her close to him. He had finally learned his lesson and he had come to understand that Pepper had been right: being apart solved nothing and only caused them grief; unnecessary grief.

Hey, even geniuses could be slow learners, right?

Pepper was angry at Rhona still being alive because she had truly wanted to kill the girl that had dared to almost end her genius boy's life. Even years after Tony had killed Ghost with his own hands to keep him from killing Pepper, the ginger had never truly understood what had crossed Tony's mind to make him break the mercenary's neck. Now, she knew. Now she knew, first-hand, what it felt like to have the desire to inflict deadly force upon another human being for the sake of saving the lives of those you love; especially for the man she could not live without.

The front door to their apartment opened up and the inventor walked inside. Pepper, who had been sitting on the couch, waiting for his return from Stark Solutions, immediately stood up and walked over to him as he was hanging the bike's keys on the wall hook that Jarvis had gotten them for Christmas, a long time ago.

He looked and felt exhausted – physically and mentally – but when he saw his ginger run up to him with open arms she then used to hug him, a smile formed on his face and she immediately graced him with one of her own before she kissed him. He happily kissed her back, and even dared to rest his hands on her butt, until she finally pulled away from him.

"Did you finish? Is everything set now?" she asked him as she led him to sit on the couch with her. He sighed in contentment when his feet were finally getting some rest and he slid off his shoes. He then twisted his body so that he was now facing her and he slid a hand down her hair and the right side of her face, leaving his fingers curled behind her neck.

"Yup," he replied. "Everything is ready to go. We're running Stark Solutions from over here and staying inside as much as we can."

"What about Rhona?" she pulled his hand away from her face and, before he could protest about it, she adjusted his body so that his back now faced her and she began massaging his shoulders.

"We'll keep searching for her," he closed his eyes and let his head bow forward. "But for now, I want you by my side or with someone else at all times. Happy's gonna start coming in at different times to watch over you, especially if I have to go somewhere and I can't bring you with me, but I need you to stay out of trouble, Potts."

"I will, for once. I promise. And what about the ROI?" she began moving her hands lower to massage his shoulder blades. "Did you finish it?"

"Yeah, this-this morning. I just forgot to… oh, oh, that feels _so_ good…"

Pepper grinned triumphantly and increased the tempo and pressure on his muscles, which made him practically purr.

"You forgot to what?" she whispered in his ear, knowing exactly what it would do to him.

"What?" he mumbled and then groaned in pleasure again. "Uuhhh, right there… oh… so good…"

The redhead smirked.

"Isn't that supposed to be MY line, Stark?"

"It can be right now if you feel like it, baby," he said with a smile, eyes still closed. "You know I'm always willing."

Pepper chuckled and rolled her eyes. "Oh, _that_ I know!" she replied as she recalled how, after they had been given the all-clear from the hospital following the Rhona mission, they had come home to make love that night. It was the first time of many since then, and once Tony had seen with his own two eyes that he was not going to hurt her or the growing baby, he had not held back on being with her whenever she let him.

And she let him, _a lot_.

"Maybe later," she continued and lowered her hands once again until they reached his mid-back. "What did you forget to tell me? What about the ROI?"

The ROI, or _Remote Optical Interface_, was the new way Pepper would be able to follow him and help him during missions. It had the appearance of a one-sided set of eyeglasses, but it was much more than that. The seemingly simple piece of technology displayed the HUD screen for his suit as a projection on any flat surface and, if needed, it would double as a remote control for the suit by allowing Pepper to synchronize her movements with the armor's, granting her the feeling that she was inside the suit herself without even having to be there at all.

Tony had based the design of the item on Extremis-simulated control and some software Rhona had used to hack them – a blessing in disguise, it seemed. It was still technically a prototype Tony would eventually have to further develop, but for now it gave his girl a sense that she was not sending him off alone to missions, which he hoped would prevent her from putting herself in danger again by following him when he got in a pickle.

"It's in the nursery," he finally said. "I finished it… this morning before I left. We can… uh… yeah… mmhhh…"

"We can, what, Tony?"

"Test it… we can test it later… ugh, lower… lower, Pep."

She smiled again, gave him what he had asked for, and Tony became pudding in her hands. After a few more minutes had passed and after her fingers grew tired, she finally stopped massaging his back. Tony sighed again when he felt his muscles were not as sore anymore from working nonstop to reinforce their protection systems and he then turned around in place to kiss the girl.

"Thank you, Pepper," he told her once he ended the kiss, rested their foreheads against each other and closed his eyes. "I can get used to this, you know?"

"Me massaging your back?" she giggled. "Oh, I'm sure you can. It doesn't entail any work for you."

He chuckled. "No, not the massage part. Though, that'd be awesome. I meant… I meant that I can get used to being with you… like this… everyday… for the rest of our lives."

Pepper partially opened her eyes but did not stare at him just yet. She in fact remained silent and very still for another moment as she thought about his words. She knew what he was saying – asking – and she knew that he knew that she knew as well. He was not officially asking her right now, and he was not expecting a response either; he was just giving her a heads up of what he was planning to do – perhaps even real soon.

"That," she began. "That wouldn't be the worst thing for me."

He smiled widely and then pressed his lips against hers for a moment as a thank you for both giving him the OK to continue with his plans and for understanding him so well and the way he worked. He was no smooth operator, but as a scientist he tended to throw theories at her and then randomly test them by doing certain things or making certain comments to her.

Just as he had done so now.

He then pulled away from her and began adjusting her position on the couch until she laid down on it on her back and he slid to the opposite corner of where her head was. She stared at him with curious eyes, but when he took off her socks and he began massaging one of her feet, she smiled, closed her eyes and relaxed.

"Roberta invited us for Thanksgiving again this year," Tony said as he observed her reactions to his massage and smirked when she moaned.

"That sounds yummy," she said and he chuckled.

"David won't be able to make it this year, but Rhodey will be there."

Her only response was another moan and he increased the pressure he was using on her feet before he spoke again.

"Dr. Adler's office called to make sure you were still OK for next month's appointment," he swapped feet and waited for her to say anything else but she did not. "I stopped by the mansion today to see Jarvis, and he says 'hi'."

Her head began to slowly tilt to the side and he smiled. "And I can't believe I wasted time not being with you like this much sooner."

Her even breathing was the only response he got from her; she had fallen asleep. He finished massaging her swollen feet and then carefully lifted himself from the couch and returned her legs to where he had been sitting himself. He walked over to their room, grabbed a blanket, returned to the living and room and covered Pepper with it. Finally, he pushed the coffee table away from the couch, sat on the floor by her head, and continued watching the cooking show that had been playing on television all this time.

He stared at her here and there for a few minutes, making sure that she was in fact still asleep, and when he was convinced that she was, he dug his right hand inside his jean's pocket and took out a small jewelry box. He gave her another quick glance for good measure, and when he returned his attention to said box, he opened it and smiled at the engagement ring he had picked up for her this morning. The engagement ring he could not wait for her to have.

xxxXXXxxx

_"In other news, the mystery of who the father of Pepper Potts's baby is, may finally be solved today. We have exclusive details of the status of her pregnancy from none other than the father of the baby himself. Details after this commercial break."_

Pepper's and Happy's mouths hung; they then stared at each other with shock on their faces, and then returned their attention to the television before them.

"Happy," Pepper began, all but abandoning her _Kit Kats_ on the coffee table before resting her back on the couch and massaged her temples with her fingertips. "Did I just hear what I think I heard?"

"If you heard that Scott is going to come on national television after the commercial break to talk about your pregnancy, then yes, you heard right." Happy shook his head disapprovingly. "That's… that's just low, dude! I thought you said he was a cool guy!"

"He is!" she stated and pointed a hand toward the television. "He… he wouldn't benefit from people finding out he's the father. He… people don't know he's a mutant! He would never… ever… he…"

She sighed, leaned forward to grab her _Kit Kats_ again and took a huge bite out of it. "I can't believe him! I can't believe he'd do that!"

"Maybe they're just teasing," Happy shrugged and returned his attention to his French fries. "Maybe they're just hoping you'd call the station right now and ask them not to air the news and that you'll give them money for their silence."

"Ugh! I HATE reporters!" Pepper groaned and then all but shoved the remainder of her chocolate bar down her throat. She had been developing an insane craving for _Kit Kat_ bars, and after Tony had been repeatedly woken up several times in the middle of the night to go collect the treats, he had finally just bought her three large boxes to keep in the apartment for her to eat whenever she felt like. That had happened a week ago – and she was now down to the last box.

"Don't sweat it, Pep," Happy said, grabbed her left hand in his and patted the back of it in a supporting manner. "It's probably just some trick to get you to accept that press conference they've been bugging you about."

Pepper sighed dejectedly and looked at the mountains of food on the coffee table, staring at them with disdain.

"Aw, man! That totally killed my appetite! I think I'll only eat three burgers instead of six. I'm sorry, Happy. I shouldn't have asked you to buy me so many. They're going to waste now."

"No, they won't," the former jock said, pulled his hand away from hers, and piled on his side of the coffee table the three containers of the burgers that Pepper had just relinquished. "I'll eat them."

Pepper chuckled lightly, stared between the burgers and the jock, and then began busting out laughing. Happy soon followed her lead and, before they knew it, they were both laughing so hard that they had started to cry. They both then took in deep breaths to calm down, and the redhead wiped tears from her face with the back of her hand.

"Oh, Happy! What would I do without you? You eat as much as I do, so you don't make me feel bad."

"What? You saying Tony can't keep up? He can seriously chow down, too."

Pepper shook her head. "No, he can't do it now, the poor guy! I mean, I don't blame him because I'm eating a lot – most of it bad food, and he can't afford to lose his muscle. He still has to go out on missions and he needs to be in top shape."

"That's true," Happy agreed and had another bite of his burger. "And then he's gonna need to be in even better shape when he becomes a father, right?"

At Happy's comment, Pepper's shoulders sagged and her hands landed on her swollen belly. At almost five months, she was finally showing her condition, and had she not been keeping track of her pregnancy bump every week by having Tony mark her belly size on the wall of the nursery and then take her picture, she would have sworn the stomach grew overnight.

"Happy, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure, thing, Pep."

"If you… if you were in Tony's position, would you, uhm, would you be alright raising some other guy's baby?"

"Every guy's different, Pep," he shrugged. "Personally, I don't think I'd mind as long as I really liked the girl, you know? Technically, it's no different than having to adopt when you can't have kids."

"Well, yeah, but," she sighed. "That's mostly a last resort. I… I don't think that Tony ever thought he would be helping me raise a kid that wasn't his own."

"I think there're a lot of things that Tony didn't think he would ever do. I think it's the same for you, and me, and everyone, really. Things just don't always go as planned," the jock said in a rare moment of wisdom as he thought about his own unexpected turn of events of being expelled from college due to a sports injury. "You ever watch _House, M.D._? I do, even though I don't understand most of it. It's a great show, really funny. Well, Dr. House has this phrase he says sometimes that I've never forgotten. He says: _People don't get what they deserve; they just get what they get._ You follow?Shit happens and that's that. What matters is how we handle it, right? That's what really counts."

Pepper rubbed her belly and lost herself in her thoughts. Tony had not wanted to be without her, but he had, and now that they were finally together, there was a baby on the way. Pepper had never thought she would end up pregnant before marriage, and yet here she was, four short months away from becoming a single mom – or as single as she could be while having the eager inventor around. And Happy had been counting on graduating college with his athletic scholarship and now here he was, attending a community college to become an athletic assistant coach and working part-time at Stark Solutions as Pepper's bodyguard, his dream of ever becoming a P.E. teacher being all but lost to him.

_Life really sucks._

"_Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen,"_ the voice of the news anchor made Happy and Pepper turn their attention back to the television and the redhead raised the volume of it. Happy narrowed his eyes and began punching his left palm with his right fist, readying to drive off to the television studio to punch Scott's face as soon as Pepper gave the word. The redhead, on the other hand, was still in disbelief that Scott would do this to her and to their baby, and decided to swallow down her angry words by chugging down on her vanilla/mango/strawberry/whipped cream/butter/pecan bits milkshake.

"_As promised," _the anchor continued._ "We now bring to you the father of Pepper Potts's baby, live in the studio with us."_

The camera slowly panned out to include the person that was sitting next to the anchor, and as soon as he was visible, Pepper spat out the shake she had in her mouth. Happy quickly got her a napkin, handed it to her and she thanked him as she repeatedly patted her chest to reduce her cough.

"I thought Scott Summers couldn't get rid of his sunglasses," Happy said, head tilted to the side. "Is he cured?"

"You can't cure mutations," Pepper said as she took in deep breaths and her brows began to knit. "And that's not Scott."

"Who is it?"

Pepper took in an angry breath, grabbed her pod from the table and began to dial. "That's Randall Kent."

"Who's Randall Kent? How do you know him?"

"He used to be my media contact… a long time ago… when Tony and I were investigating the Maggia."

"Oh," Happy said and then his eyes widened. "Oooh! Crap! That little bastard, trying to make a quick buck! I'm gonna… Hey, who are you calling?"

"Tony," Pepper responded, put the wireless earpiece in her right ear and bit her lower lip, hoping that he would answer even though he was in a mandatory board meeting at SI.

"What for?"

"To plead with him not to kick this guy's ass. We'll just sue him and the network, and smack them both with a gag order."

Happy cracked his knuckles, chuckled and then crossed his arms over his chest.

"_Not_ kick his ass? Tony's gotta get in line."

Pepper's shoulders sagged and she sighed. Randall Kent would never see what was coming to him.

xxxXXXxxx

"Are you sure you want to do this, Pep? They're going to eat you alive out there," Tony implored his girl, worry written all over his face. "They might even make you too upset for the baby's health. Please, don't do this. Don't give them what they want. Please."

"I'll be fine, Stark," Pepper responded with a confident smile and began walking towards the door. "Believe me, after this press conference, they're going to leave the issue alone."

Tony shook his head and stood in her way out of the room in which she had been getting ready for the press conference she was about to host, but when Pepper gave him a kiss on the lips and snaked her arms around his shoulders, he knew he had already lost.

"Trust me, Tony. They won't know what hit them, just like Randall didn't."

"Actually," Tony began as he placed his hands on her hips. "He _does_ know what hit him: my right fist and Happy's left one."

Pepper rolled her eyes. "Ugh, don't remind me! That was the ONE thing I asked you both not to do."

"He had it coming," Tony said without remorse. "And so did the news anchor that hired him, for that matter."

"I didn't want you hurting him, either! He was already gonna get fired for lying to the network, babe! There was no need to dislocate his arm."

"It was… an accident…" he replied, his eyes shifting left and right in a denial-like manner. "It's not my fault his arm was the only thing keeping me from falling to the floor after I tripped over his chair, right?"

"Tony, seriously. Number one: you didn't trip on his chair; you tripped on a knocked out Randall. And, two: you weren't tripping at all! You just pretended you did!"

"Do I need to remind you, Potts, that the DA found me not at fault?"

Pepper sighed in exasperation and shook her head. "That's not what he said. He said that they chose not to prosecute you. Randall can still sue you."

"Let him try! I'll countersue for slander and fraud."

"You can't do that," she said.

"Why the hell not?"

"Because I've already filed for it myself."

It took Tony a second to process her words, but when he threw his head back in laughter that she immediately supplemented, she knew that he had finally understood.

"But seriously, Tony. Just let the idiot go. He's gonna have enough problems already."

"And he's gonna have more if he tries to pull another trick like that one again."

Pepper glared at him. "No, I mean it, Stark. Leave him alone."

"Why? I'm just watching out for my girl, that's all," he said with a charming smile he knew she would not be able to resist, and when a light tint of red covered her cheeks, he did an inward victory dance for his achievement. "So, are you sure you don't want me there to defend you, babe? I brought the suit," he asked, still worried about the pack of wolves she was throwing herself to.

"Absolutely sure," she gave him a quick kiss on the lips before she finally pulled away from his arms. "Just wait for me out here, alright?"

Tony sighed in defeat and nodded. "Fine. But I can't say that Happy will stay put if they start asking the type of questions I know they're going to ask."

"Then it's your job to make sure he does stay put."

"What? Why me? What incentive can I possible have t— Mmhhh…" his words were drowned by Pepper's sudden kiss and roaming hands on his body, and the inventor sincerely thought he was going to die of happiness. This was what he had wanted all along, ever since he had realized he liked his redheaded friend as more than just that. And now, after years of waiting, screwing up and suffering, he finally got what he had wanted: them together, for better or for worse.

"Is that enough incentive?" she asked when she pulled away from him and he nodded. "Good," she continued. "I'll be back in ten minutes."

Tony, while still somewhat floating on air after the kiss, was able to frown in confusion.

"Ten minutes? The conference is scheduled for half an hour."

Pepper gave him one of his own smug smiles back and shrugged.

"Ten minutes is all I'll need," she responded, blew him a kiss and exited the room, leaving him wondering what exactly she had in mind.

xxxXXXxxx

"Greetings," Pepper said from her position at the front of the conference room. "Let's get this over with, alright?"

The media had milked the opportunity for all that it was worth and had rented the largest event center they could find on such short notice. The list of reporters was in the hundreds, and every major television channel had a camera aimed at her face. The platform where she currently stood behind a large podium was very narrow and it was surrounded by countless microphones, cameras and other people, and she was certain that they were trying to intimidate her by making her feel physically restrained.

_Good luck with that_, the redhead smiled. They had surely forgotten that she was a superhero on vacation, and a person that had survived being kidnapped and threatened with torture and death not once or twice, but THREE times since the world had learned who she was. _Thanks Whitney, AGAIN!_

"Who wants to go first?" Pepper asked and everyone's hands went up in the air. She picked one at random and the man immediately took the opportunity to question the ginger.

"Noah Greg, _The Viewer_. Miss Potts, is it true that Scott Summers left you because he wanted nothing to do with the baby?"

Pepper casually and calmly grabbed her pod, pressed a few buttons on it and after reading the notes she had prepared for the event, she looked up at the man, stared directly into his eyes and responded to his question with one of her own.

"Is it true that you, Mr. Greg, have been cheating on your wife with your makeup artist for the past year, and that you two took a trip last weekend to Colorado under the fake identities of Laura and Hugh Craig?" she finished with a smile.

The reporter visibly paled, his eyes widened, his jaw slackened, and he swallowed hard before he hunched down in the chair and put away his notepad. Pepper gave the man a few more seconds to say anything else, but when he could not even stare back at her, she cleared her throat, returned her attention to the rest of the reports and smiled.

"Next?"

This time, only half of the reporters raised their hands.

"Go at it," Pepper said to a man in front of her, drummed the fingers of her right hand on the podium in a bored manner and rested her head on her closed left hand.

"David Messina, _Daily Bugle_, is it true that this is actually your _second_ child and that the first one was a product of being a victim of sexual assault during the Maggia stakeout? Is it true you that actually gave up the first one for adoption and that's why you left Stark Solutions for an entire year?"

Pepper rolled her eyes, sighed in an exaggerated manner and again scrolled down her list of names and information on her pod. After she found the man's information, she finally looked up and cleared her throat.

"Is your ex-wife aware that you have been lying on your child support documentation about not having an extra source of income and that you actually received an inheritance from your deceased grandfather about six months ago that will cover the back payments you owe her and your six kids?"

Everyone's eyes landed on the fleeing man as he quickly left the conference room without another word, and the ginger smirked and shook her head.

"Next?" Pepper asked and this time only a third of the room raised their hands.

"You," the redhead pointed to a woman in a red outfit.

"Uhm, Dana Charles, _Entertainment Weekly_, Miss… Miss Potts… is it true that, uhm, that the baby is actually Tony Stark's?"

Pepper almost felt bad for what she was about to do, simply because the woman was already stuttering nervously, but she had already made up her mind to do what she was about to do. This was why she had agreed to do this in the first place; because she had investigated every single person in this room to be able to counter their inappropriate questions with an inappropriate question of her own.

She scrolled down the information on her pod, and when her eyebrows shot up to the sky and she then eyed the reporter with a shocked face, the reporter blushed and immediately retracted her question.

"Anyone else?" the redhead finally asked after a pause. This time, no one dared to raise their hand.

"It was a pleasure," she said before she gave them a nod, turned around in place and left the reporters drowned in absolute silence.

Media: 1; Pepper Potts: a fucking million.

xxxXXXxxx

"So, how did she manage to not get hurt? I saw the footage man, and that was not any ol' explosion. The suits blow up like nobody's business," Rhodey said to his friend as they both hung around in Tony's old room at the Rhodes' home while everyone else helped Roberta cook the Thanksgiving meal. Everyone had arrived at around noon to help the host since David was not around. Happy, Jarvis and Pepper helped the attorney prepare the food. Howard and Virgil chilled out on the deck, drinking and laughing at who-knew-what. And Rhodey and Tony had decided to play video games and catch up.

"She added a micro shield generator to her pod," Tony said, fingers skillfully pressing the buttons of the game controller in his hand. "When she quit being Rescue and left the apartment, she adapted a shield for it in case she needed it."

Rhodey whistled loudly.

"Damn! That's smart! Though, it shouldn't really surprise me, right? She's been hanging around you for years now, and she did try to recreate the pod when she was in that submarine to call for help," Rhodey's face of surprise then turned into a frown when Tony killed the zombie he had wanted to get in the first place. Tony gave him a smug smile at the points his kill earned him and Rhodey rolled his eyes. "Whatever, man! I was gonna get him first. I just let you have him."

"Sure, you did," Tony said in a sarcastic tone. "Admit it: you're too slow, Rhodey. You're losing your touch chilling at the Air Force. Maybe I should retire War Machine."

"Shut it!" Rhodey responded and took a moment to move his newly created armor backpack closer to him. "You just got me the backpack you promised me years ago. You can't take it back."

Tony smirked. "I don't know about that. I did manage to take back most of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s weapons. Don't tempt the awesome Tony Stark or I'll have my Pepper kick your ass."

"Hey! I ain't gonna be stupid enough to threaten Pepper, so back off, man."

Tony chuckled and shook his head. He then stared at the closed door and then back at Rhodey and then paused the game.

"Hey, I was about to get that plasma blaster!" Rhodey complained, hands still firmly holding onto the game controller. "What gives?"

Tony placed his controller on the floor and again checked the door one more time before he took out from his pocket the ring box he had been carrying with him for the past two weeks. Rhodey eyed him with confusion and curiosity until the inventor turned around completely so that his back was towards the entrance, in case someone decided to come inside, and then opened the box to show the ring to his friend.

"Please tell me you're not proposing to me," Rhodey jested.

"I would, if I knew you'd say yes," Tony replied without missing a beat, which earned him a loud laugh from his childhood friend.

"Jerk," Rhodey said and hit him in the shoulder with his right fist. "But seriously, dude. What's this about?"

"I'm going to ask Pepper to marry me," the blue-eyed boy said with a bright smile so wide it barely fit in his face.

Rhodey's eyes became as wide as saucers and his jaw hit the ground. The look on his friend's face amused the inventor, but also made him shake his head in disbelief.

"What? Is it really that unexpected?"

"Uhm, yes… and no… but yes… but no…"

Tony raised a single brow. "Why and why not?"

Rhodey opened his mouth to say something but then closed it again. He then lifted his right index finger in preparation to say something but he immediately closed his jaw once more. He then used the same finger to scratch the side of his head for a few seconds, inhaled deeply and exhaled through his nose.

"Are you sure about this, T?"

Tony was taken aback. He had expected shock from Rhodey, maybe even some teasing, but not a pep talk to make him change his mind.

"Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, uhm, you know… you know she's having someone else's baby, right?"

"Yeah," Tony said and closed the ring box when it was evident to him that Rhodey held no interest in even looking at the piece of jewelry. "So?"

"Well, what if after she has the baby, she decides to get back together with Scott?"

"What?" Tony scoffed. "Why would she go back to Scott? The guy's dating Jean Grey, and Pepper's with me now."

"And before that she was Scott's girlfriend for nearly two years, and you were with Maya for around the same time, and you and Pepper dated in high school for _three_ days."

"And we're dating now."

"Are you, really? Do you, like, call her your girlfriend?"

"Uhm, no. I… I don't need to."

"Does she call you her boyfriend?"

"No. Not really. She… uhm… she calls me… Tony?"

"Right," Rhodey said and then motioned with his hand for Tony to hand him the ring. Tony reluctantly took it out from his pocket again and gave it to his friend, and after staring at it for a moment he spoke again. "Look, man, I'm not trying to rain on your parade, but you two have been through hell and back, and I'm honestly tired of seeing you two get hurt."

"We're not getting hurt this time, Rhodey. We're done goofing around."

"Are you sure? Did she tell you that?"

"Yes."

"Straight up?"

"Straight up. We've talked about this and I kinda already hinted where I want us to go, and she didn't say no."

"But she hasn't said yes, yet."

"I haven't officially asked her," Tony shrugged. "I told my dad and he gave me my mom's ring," he pointed to the ring that Rhodey now held in his hand. "I'm telling_ you_ now. And after dinner, I'm going to ask her dad for permission."

"Dude, you're serious about this?"

"Yes!" Tony said. "What's not clear to you, Rhodey? I love her, and she loves me. We live together and we're _technically_ having a kid together."

"You live together in a two-bedroom apartment, and the kid you're _technically_ having together belongs to her ex – uhm, what is it? Oh yeah! Ex-FIANCE!"

"So, what? Maya was my fiancée, too, and I'm not getting back together with her. Besides, the two-bedroom apartment argument is invalid: one of them has been turned into a nursery," Tony crossed his arms over his chest. "And she's moved into my room."

"Are-are you serious?" Rhodey asked again. "As in… staying in the same bed at night? And… and… are you two, I mean… you already did once but… are you… are you?"

"Rhodey, a gentleman has no memory."

"HOLY SHIT! YOU TWO ARE SLEEPING TOGETHER?" Rhodey spat before Tony was able to cover his mouth with his hand and scolded him for his loud voice.

"Shut the fuck up, man!"

"Sowy," Rhodey said behind his still covered mouth before Tony pulled away and sighed in relief when no one stormed inside the room. "But, dude, how do you expect me to react? I mean, this is huge! I… I didn't even know pregnant women could… well… you know."

Tony shrugged. "That makes two of us."

Rhodey shook his head, stared down at the ring and sighed. "So, it's for real this time, huh?"

"Yes. As real as it gets."

"Wow," Rhodey breathed. "I just… wow… I thought I'd never see the day you two stopped being idiots and got your shit together."

Tony shrugged again. "Better late than never, I guess."

"No joke," Rhodey responded and then frowned. "Hey, I thought you said this used to be your mom's ring. I don't remember it being so decorated." He added as he recalled that Howard Stark always had the ring hanging from a chain around his neck that he hid under his shirt most of the time.

"It wasn't. I asked my dad if I could add some stuff to it and get it engraved and he said yes."

"You got it engraved?" Rhodey asked, tilted the ring to read the inscription inside of it and then grimaced. "The hell is this? What's _Pepperony_?"

Tony sighed and shook his head. "I asked the guy to engrave _Pepper & Tony_ and the infinity symbol, you know, like saying 'Pepper and Tony Forever.' But apparently he wasn't paying attention and ended up engraving that instead. He was watching _Breakdancing with Celebrities_ and didn't even know he had screwed it up until I told him when I picked it up."

"Aw, man!" Rhodey groaned. "That sucks! Are you getting it fixed?"

"I thought about it," he said, grabbed the ring back from Rhodey, put it back inside the box, and the box inside his pocket. "But then I figured Pepper's weird enough to find it amusing. She might even think it's cute."

Rhodey scoffed. "You got that right! That girl's into some pretty weird things."

Tony smirked. "Oh, yes, she _is_!"

It took Rhodey a second to understand the connotation in which the inventor had said those words and once he did, he covered his ears with his hands.

"Oh, man! TMI!"

xxxXXXxxx

They were the only two people at the old armory after dinner had ended and everyone had split up to relax for the rest of the night in whatever way they had chosen to do. Rhodey and Happy had decided to continue playing video games in Tony's old room. Virgil and Howard were again on the deck, secretly celebrating the future union of their kids, even though Pepper did not know Tony had asked her dad for permission already. And Jarvis and Roberta exchanged cooking advice.

As opposed to how they had spent Thanksgiving the previous year, this time the genius and the redhead were actually enjoying themselves. Tony had brought her here to the former armory about an hour ago, blanket in hand, and had set camp on the ground for them. It was not the most romantic setting in the world since it was the ruined remnants of a warehouse, but the fact that it was just the two of them, on a blanket on the concrete floor, with a small candle lit a few feet from them that barely illuminated their surroundings, and the fact that they had been making out for the past half hour, had made it very top-notch romantic for the ginger…

…until the baby had decided to kick.

Currently, Tony's left ear was pressed against her belly, his hands rested on the sides of her stomach to make sure he did not put too much pressure on the womb with his weight. Pepper was lying on her back, slightly propped up by her bent arms while she stared down at the young billionaire practically holding his breath, waiting for the baby to call attention to itself again.

"I don't hear or feel anything, Pepper," Tony whispered as if he was afraid his voice would scare off the little creature that had been kicking like crazy just moments ago. "I think he fell asleep."

"Just give it a minute, Tony."

"I've given him five!" he retorted, pulled his head away from her belly, and replaced it with his left palm as he lightly rubbed her stomach. "I think he's done for the night."

"He?" Pepper finally asked. "Why do you keep calling it a 'he'?"

Tony shrugged. "_It_ sounds weird. Like an animal or a thing or something. And I have a feeling it's going to be a boy."

Pepper chuckled. "Really? Is it really just a feeling or have you been running tests on me while I'm asleep?"

"What? No!" he retorted with a frown. "It's just what I think he's gonna be. What do you think it's gonna be? A girl?"

Pepper shrugged. "I just hope it's only one baby," she said with a smile and a light shake of the head. "I'm only getting ready for one."

Tony chuckled and continued rubbing her belly with his fingertips, his eyes glued to her tummy.

"I guess you're right," he began. "As long as he or she is healthy, that's all that matters, right?"

"You mean as long as he or she is not a mutant? As long as he turns out to be normal?" she asked with a saddened expression. "You know I can't help that."

Tony frowned but did not remove his eyes or hand from her stomach.

"That's not what I mean, Pep. Besides, this kid has NO chance of being normal. Even if he doesn't end up being a mutant, he has you for a mom, so that already is not in his favor," he smirked.

Pepper scoffed. "Oh, puh-lease! You're one to talk! If it were your kid, he'd probably end up controlling computers like you do. That would make him not normal, which makes YOU not normal either! In fact," she added after she sat up. "Even without Extremis, you're everything but normal. Normal kids don't have an IQ of a zillion when they're born."

Tony laughed and adjusted his position so that he now faced her sitting form.

"Well, in that case, there's nothing to worry about. He or she would've been weird either way."

"Guess so," she replied and stared at her belly until Tony lifted her face by her chin with his hand and pulled her to him to kiss her.

Pepper smiled under his lips. Her heart beat fast in her chest and her entire body felt as if it were flying on a puffy cloud, filled with bliss. She could not believe she was here today, with him, finally together and doing this. Not after everything that happened, and not after what she had heard him say the last time she had been here.

With that thought in mind, Pepper broke the kiss and pulled away, and when Tony narrowed his eyes at her, she shrugged in response.

"I have a confession to make."

His face showed he became alarmed for a second, but after a long exhale and a gulp, he spoke again.

"You're not dumping me are you? Because it's Thanksgiving and that's just cruel."

"No," she said with a chuckle. "I'm not dumping you."

"Leaving the apartment?"

"No."

"Gonna tell me you're gay?"

"No!"

"Or that you don't love me?"

"No. I do love you," she said, held his face in her hands, kissed him lightly, pulled away and stared at his blue orbs as she spoke. "I love you, Tony. So much."

Her words plastered a wide smile on his face. He then grabbed her hands in his and playfully rubbed her knuckles.

"OK," he finally said. "Hit me."

Pepper nodded once, pulled her eyes away from him and stared at the candle that lay to her right, by the edge of the blanket.

"I know – I _heard _what you said about me last year when you and Rhodey were in here talking. And I wanted to say that I'm sorry I've ever made you feel that way."

Tony titled his head to the left, trying to find her eyes, confusion all over his features. Pepper sighed slowly before she finally stared back at him, and it was then that the inventor saw that tears were forming in her eyes.

"I'm really sorry, Tony. I didn't mean to ruin your get-together with your family last year."

His look of confusion only grew and his eyes shifted left and right as he tried to find the reason why Pepper thought she had done anything wrong to him. When the memory finally came back to him, however, his eyes widened in panic and surprise.

_"I'm telling you, Rhodey, it's so hard __**not**__ to punch her in the face right now. Seriously! I mean, I know you never hit woman and blah-blah-blah but I can't stand her! I literally CANNOT stand her guts! I mean, she knows about it, too, right? It's not news to her, right? She hates me too, right? It's mutual, right?"_

"_I… I guess…" Rhodey said, not able to believe his ears._

"_Yes! It IS! It SO is! So, why? WHY is she here in the first place? She's just ruining my time with everyone else! Pissing the fuck out of me every second she's here. She's acting like nothing ever happened, like if we didn't tell each other off! And she's all smiles and giggles with everyone, as if she belongs here. She. DOESN'T. Belong. Here. She should leave right now! Why did she even come?"_

"_Because my mom invited her?"_

"_EXACTLY! But still, she has no business here. It's like, what is she, stupid or something? I don't even know why I slept with her. Worst mistake __**ever**__. I wish I could take it back but… but I can't! It's done and I have to live with it! What else am I supposed to do to make her understand? I want her out of my life, gone! Disappeared! FOREVER! If I could prevent us from ever meeting, I would. I wish I'd never met her, really. I wish I'd never been at that fucking roof that day! What else am I supposed to do for her to get the hint, huh? Tell her off again? Beat her up?"_

"_Dude, seriously," Rhodey said with a growl. "First: fucking chill. That's my friend you're talking about. And two: if you keep talking about Pepper like that, I'M gonna beat__** you**__ up."_

"_Well, I'm sorry, Rhodey! That's just how I feel!"_

"Pepper? Did you…" he gulped. "Were you… oh, _shit_! Oh, MY God! Pepper! Dammit! No! NO! Aw, CRAP!"

"It's OK, Tony… I… I had it coming."

"What? NO!" he cupped her face. "Hell, no, Pep! I… Jeez, this is so fucked up. Listen, I-I wasn't talking about you. I…" he sighed loudly. "I was talking about Maya, I swear," he whispered and kissed her lips. "I swear, baby, I wasn't talking about you."

"Tony, you don't have to lie to me. I get it, OK? I pissed you off and –"

"No, Pepper, you don't understand. I _really_ was talking about her! You can even ask Rhodey about it! He thought I was talking about you too but then I corrected him and… and… GOD! I'm such an idiot! I'm so sorry! I didn't know you had heard that. I'm so very sorry."

Pepper frowned and stared at him for a moment, trying to decide if he was telling her the truth. She knew that she could always ask Rhodey to confirm Tony's words, and she also knew that their common friend would not lie for the inventor, but seeing how the genius was reacting now and after everything that had already occurred between them, he really had no reason to lie to her at all. His lesson had been learned.

"OK," she nodded. "I believe you."

"Really? Because if you don't and you're just saying that, we can walk up to Rhodey right now and –"

"No," she interrupted him. "It's alright. I believe you, Tony."

Tony hung his head and frowned, truthfully feeling remorseful about it all. He had never even thought that she could have heard him, but seeing as she had also misunderstood his words about Whitney way back when they were still at the Academy, it really should have not surprised him that she had again walked in to the middle of a conversation between he and Rhodey.

He exhaled loudly through his mouth and rested their hands on her belly, and as he was about to further apologize to her, the baby chose that moment to kick. Their eyes went wide as they stared at each other and then down at the bump.

"Oh, crud! Did you feel that?" Pepper asked, a wide smile on her face.

"YES!" Tony replied, also with a smile. "Damn! That boy can kick!" He added when he felt another little hit under his hand and he chuckled. "This is so weird!"

"Bad weird or…?"

"Good weird," Tony smirked, remembering the last time they had exchanged those exact same words. "VERY good weird," he added, leaned closer to her and kissed her again. "I love you, Pep."

"I love you too, Tony," she whispered and then kissed him back.

xxxXXXxxx

"See?" Howard whispered to everyone behind him that was listening in to the couple's conversation. "Told you they'd be fine."

"I'm glad," Virgil whispered back. "Pepper can be really obnoxious sometimes. I can't believe your boy is putting up with it."

"Oh, they have their moments," Howard said, turned around and then began ushering Happy, Jarvis, Roberta, Rhodey and Virgil away from the place they had been hiding at for the last ten minutes. "Come on. Let's leave them alone now."

Everyone else but Rhodey began scattering around and heading back to the house. The boy's eyes were glued to his friends and a wide smile reached his face.

_Fina-fucking-lly_, he thought as he watched the couple giggle between kisses, hands laced, and exchanged tender words they thought no one but them could hear.

_Tony was right. They're going to be OK._

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Want to see the engagement ring? Check my profile!


	6. Chapter 5

**A/N: **How many of you liked the ring? How about the story? Is the slowness of the story boring you? Or is it too gushy? I hope everyone is liking it! I'm just wondering because it appears that when I have horrible things happen to the characters, everyone is up in arms in the form of reviews. But when there is only fluff happening, there's hardly any response and I wonder if it's just too much sugar that it's sickening ;) I do sincerely hope the excessive fluff is not a problem because there's plenty more left.

**Guest Review Responses**

**Toni: Hello again! So in this chapter you somewhat revealed that Pepper's symptoms appear to be latent and enhanced (the poor girl) which I assume is from Extremis. Not sure if this is attributed to Extremis (from the growing foetus) but she also recovered very quickly in 'The 1st Yr' after her fall. And we know that in 'The 2nd Yr' she took a pregnancy test that was negative which scared her into being extra careful in terms of using contraceptives. This leads me to believe that the baby is in fact not Scott's. Regardless, whether it is Scott's child or not, I think Tony is doing a very sweet thing. **The fall that Pepper survived took her nearly a month to recover from. She fell by the end of June and didn't wake up until the end of July, and thanks to landing on Jules (bad, bad, evil man!) she only had to recover consciousness since she didn't break any bones or anything. When she transferred the suit to Glenda, she had to activate the thrusters for a second to slow down the fall to be able to give the armor to Glenda and that kinda reduced the impact from the fall. And, yes, Tony IS doing a very sweet thing. And it'll get sweeter in this chapter.

**I enjoyed that conversation between Rhodey and Tony. It reminded me that the TP still have quite a lot to talk about. Awww! Tony feeling the baby kick! Tony's right. I can't wait for the birth of this baby just to see how WEIRD (in a good way) it's going to be!** TP? Like, Tony and Pepper? They do have a lot to talk about but with the baby being their primary concern, some conversations have been put on hold. But, they will happen. And, a THOUSAND times yes about the weirdness that's gonna be having the baby with them after the birth. There's nothing funnier in the next story than two young people trying to be parents XD

I would also like to welcome _ItsAlwaysStark-Potts_, who couldn't have a better penname because it IS always Pepperony!

And now, my Faithful Readers, go grab a tissue. No. Seriously. Go grab one.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 5: December<strong>

"You better not back out on me, Potts," Tony said, his right hand playing with her left one on their way to Dr. Adler's office while his left hand maneuvered the steering wheel of his car. "A deal is a deal, right?"

Pepper rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"_Yes_, Tony. For the thousandth time: you _can_ come inside with me to the examination room. Though, I hope you're ready for it. It's NOT pretty."

"Oh, I know," he said with a nod. "I watched the videos online and, well… it makes me glad I'm a guy."

Pepper snickered and shook her head lightly again, her eyes staring out the window of the passenger's seat. She sighed deeply and slowly, and then inadvertently swallowed loud enough for the inventor to perceive. Hearing the telltale signs of anxiety, Tony frowned in concern, stole a quick glance at her and then returned his attention to the road.

"Are you nervous, babe?"

Pepper bit her lower lip.

"A little. Yeah."

"About the visit?"

"No, not really," she tapped her fingers on the handle of the passenger seat's door. "It's more about me becoming a mom in three months. Which is kinda ironic, you know? Since my real mom killed herself after having me, and my adoptive mom gave up on me when I was two years-old after cheating on my dad. I have, like, no frame of reference and it totally blows."

Tony one-side shrugged and stopped playing with her hand, opting to hold it in his instead to provide her with some physical comfort.

"I wouldn't say that. You actually have a frame of reference of what NOT to do as a mom – which I think is more important. And even if you didn't have one, I still think you're going to do great, Pep."

"That's easy for you to say," she turned to face him. "It's not your kid, so if you screw up, you're not going to be the one to blame. I have no way out."

"All parents screw up, Pepper. The trick is not doing it too often or too much at a time."

Pepper smirked, stared at him up a down, and raised a single eyebrow. "Still reading those parenting books, aren't ya?"

"Maybe," he said with a smirk of his own. "And maybe watching some videos, too."

The ginger threw her head back in laughter, leaned in closer to him and gave him a quick peck on his cheek.

"You're too cute, sometimes. You know that?"

"Nope," he lifted his chin. "Please, tell me again."

Pepper's laugh only increased at his response and Tony joined in. He then began slowing down the car when they arrived at the clinic, and as opposed to the time before the news of the redhead's pregnancy had come out, this time the couple had arrived for the visit during normal business hours on a Friday. Screw the media; they could think whatever the hell they wanted.

"Whoa," Tony began, his eyes staring at the heavily busy lot. "Good thing we have an appointment, Pep. This place's packed today!"

The inventor drove around in the parking lot a few times until he finally found a spot. A moment after stopping the vehicle, he and Pepper exited the car and began walking toward the entrance of the clinic, hand-in-hand, not really caring if anyone saw them act like the couple they were yet to confirm to the media they actually were. Even after Pepper had schooled the reporters during the press conference last month, the inquiries had continued to surge on television and papers. At least, however, the requests for them to make a statement had practically disappeared, and that was always a plus. In addition, reporters had begun triple-checking their sources so as to avoid another lawsuit from Stark Solutions and its owners.

"So, today Dr. Adler's going to confirm my suspicions that we have a boy on our hands, right?" Tony asked in his typical smug, all-knowing tone.

"Or break your heart and tell you we're having a girl," Pepper said with a taunting smile. "We really should've waited to paint the nursery blue, you know?"

"Pepper, I'm a genius. I don't make this stuff up. If I say that baby there is a boy, it's because it is a boy. Don't ask me how I know, or why I think that's the case, but I do. We're gonna have a baby boy Stark," Tony said with a smile that lasted but a few seconds until he remembered the child was not his. "Or, a baby boy Summers, if that's the case."

Seeing his suddenly dejected pose, the ginger stopped their trek to the front door of the clinic and pulled him away from view of whoever was already inside. He tried to give her a smile, but she knew better than to fall for his pathetic attempt at masquerading his pain. She then grabbed both of his hands in hers, pulled him to her to kiss his lips, and he kissed her back – although not as confidently as he usually did. Once she broke the kiss, she gave him a bright smile he partially returned.

"The last name doesn't matter, Tony. If it did, then Roberta would've never taken you into her home and treated you like a son when your dad was not around, my dad would've never loved me as much as he does, and I wouldn't have loved him as much as I do. What matters is the relationship you build with people. And you're going to be a great male figure for him."

"Male figure? That's all you want him to see me as?"

"I want him – or her – to see you as whatever you want to be. A friend, a role model…"

"A dad?" Tony interjected with a frown. "Don't you want me to be that for him?"

"Of course I do. I wouldn't mind," she said. "But I don't want to pressure you. To officially be his dad, you'd have to be a husband first and that's probably asking for too much at once, even if you already kinda have the idea in mind," she gave him a sad smile. "I know," she sighed and looked down. "I know you feel OK about it right now, but as the due date comes closer, you may start seeing things differently. And that's OK."

Tony lowered his face and tilted it to the side to find her gaze. Once she looked at him, he smiled.

"Any reason why you're now having second thoughts about us getting married?"

_Getting married_, her stomach did a double flip at hearing him say the magic words again. He had made the comment about marriage before, and he had even asked her to marry him in the past too, but without a ring and without any follow through until now, she knew that he could always back out of it at the last minute – just as he had done so with Maya Hansen.

"They're not really second thoughts. It's just, well…" she began. "The closer we come to March, the realer it gets for me. And the realer it gets, the more I feel guilty about dragging you into this when it's not even your doing that I'm having a baby," she scoffed. "I mean, we aren't even allowed to legally drink yet."

"And yet, here I am, Pep," He replied with a confident smile and held her face in his hands. "And I wouldn't have it any other way… well," he paused, "I mean, it would've been nice if this kiddo was _mine_ mine… but that doesn't mean we can't always add more, right?"

Pepper blushed and looked to the side.

"M-maybe, yeah…"

Tony chuckled at her coy response, seeing how her inhibitions seemed to completely disappear when they were together. He found it endearing that he could still all the same make her stumble over her words. He finally gave her a nice, long kiss to seal the conversation and then guided them both to the door.

The genius held the door open for his girlfriend and she immediately walked inside as she mumbled a _thank you_ to him. She opened her mouth to say something else to the inventor, but when her eyes landed on a person she had not expected to see inside, her words left her for second, only to then come rushing out of her lips.

"Scottuhmhi!" the ginger gulped. Tony let go of the door and his head immediately snapped up when he recognized that Pepper had called the jock's name and, for a few seconds, the small room became as silent as a graveyard.

The two men stared each other up and down. When Tony slid from behind Pepper to stand to her right, she exhaled slowly and prayed that she did not have to intervene. Even if the two men had been present when Pepper had told Scott about becoming a father, they really had not interacted at all. In fact, they had acted as if they had not even been there in the same place at the same time. This was, for all purposes, the first time they saw each other again after their many arguments, and it appeared as if everyone inside the reception area – even if they did not know what was happening – could sense the tension that existed between the two men.

Pepper stared at Tony from the corner of her eye while she at the same time watched Scott's movements, and when both the inventor and the jock simultaneously took a step forward toward the other, the ginger expected the worst to occur…

…until she realized all they did was shake hands.

"Stark."

"Summers."

To everyone's surprise, there was a collective sigh of relief that followed the short greet.

"Pepper," Tony stared at the girl as he slid one of her rogue hairs behind her ear with his hand, a small smile on his lips that she knew to be fake. "I'll go sit in the back over there," he pointed behind her with his other hand. "I'll be here when you two come out."

"No, wait," she said and grabbed his hand before it could leave her face. She exhaled loudly and alternated between staring at Tony and at Scott as she thought about what to do. She had promised Tony that he would be able to be present for the entire examination this time around, but she had also sent Scott the schedule of when she would be here in case he had wanted to come see his own child.

She had not considered that Scott would ever show up at the clinic since, even though he had been keeping contact with her, he had never mentioned he would be attending a doctor visit. He had definitely failed to give her a heads up for this particular checkup, and she now found herself having to choose what to do.

_Oh, nuts!_

Bringing them both inside with her during her checkup, at the same time, was definitely not an option since the awkwardness would just be too much for all of them to handle. The other option was to bring one in and then the other, but she feared that the order in which one man came inside as opposed to the other would make it seem as if she had a preference and she did not want that to show – even if she _did _prefer Tony to be in there with her. Scott did not have to know that, however, and she was aware that he technically had more right than Tony to be there because it was his flesh and blood that was being examined today.

_Then again, Tony has been with me the entire way and Scott has not_, she mused. _If anything, they both have the right to be there for one reason or another. Ugh!_

Another option was to not let either of them come inside, but that would probably just cause even more problems in the end.

Tony could tell what was crossing her mind, and when her eyes began filling with tears of desperation, the inventor leaned down to hold her right cheek with his left hand and whispered in her ear.

"It's alright, Pep," he kissed the side of her face. "I can wait. It's not a big deal."

Tony pulled away from her face and stroked her cheekbone with his thumb. Pepper covered his hand on her face with her right hand and blinked back tears.

"Are-are you sure?"

Tony nodded but, before he could speak, the jock spoke instead after finally finding his voice.

"Was it Tony's turn to join you today? I can wait," Scott held back a frown. Seeing them together still partially stung him since he was certain that Pepper had never, in the two years they dated, ever stared at him with such sentiment as she was currently looking at the inventor. In the end, however, it had been _he_ who had decided to end it with the ginger, so he could not truly complain about it now.

Besides, he was confident that Jean Grey did look at him with the same devotion he could see in Pepper at the moment, and it was not as if he wanted to get back together with the woman that obviously loved the blue-eyed boy more than any other man in the world. He was happy with Jean Grey, anyway, and he was glad to have her by his side.

"I should've told you I was coming. I'm sorry I didn't. I-I wasn't sure if I could make it."

"I've been here before," Tony said with a shrug. "Why don't you go in with her? I can see the baby another day."

"Are you sure?" Scott asked. He did want to see his baby and wanted to know the sex of it, too – which was one of the main reasons he had traveled so far to be here today. Yet, he could also respect the fact that Tony had been taking care of a child that was not his and also had the right to be there for the important moment.

"Yeah, I'm sure," Tony said, this time with a truly relaxed smile before he kissed Pepper's forehead and nose and then walked away to one of the chairs in the room. Pepper followed him with her eyes, mouthed him a _thank you_, and she then turned around to face Scott. The jock gave her an apologetic smile and a thankful nod at Tony, and when the nurse called Pepper's name, Scott grabbed her hand and led her inside the room with him. Tony sighed as low as he could when the door to the examination room closed and he took out his pod to pass the time.

He decided to check up on his classes and the status of his graduation application from MIT. As he had expected, he had finished his double-degree early – two and a half years early, in fact. Just as Pepper had done, he had enrolled in a five-year program where he would pursue a bachelor's and a master's degree at the same time. Thanks to his advanced courses he had taken in high school, the credit-by-exam opportunities he had pursued to skip classes altogether, and his crazy IQ, he was now ready to once and for all leave behind his years in school.

The end of his college career could have not come at a better time for him. He could now devote even more time to Pepper, the baby, and to Stark Solutions – the last one, finally coming out of the hole he had put it in. Pepper had been shocked and scared for a while when she had seen the numbers and the bad shape the company was in, but once she had seen Tony's efforts to repair the damage that had been done, she had stopped worrying altogether. It had taken some reassuring from the inventor to prove to her that he was not going to let their company fail, and even more convincing to have her not be part of the recovery efforts until she was at least cleared for full-duty after the birth. In the end, she had relinquished all the responsibility to him for now.

Tony smiled when he saw that everything was approved at MIT and that he would be receiving his degree in the mail sometime next year. He had forgone the graduation ceremony simply because he did not find it to mean anything for him. Moreover, he was not looking to sit in a chair for ten hours to be on stage for three seconds and receive a piece of paper that was not even worth his time.

Pepper and his father had chastised him for making that decision without consulting them first – they really had wanted to celebrate his efforts – but in the end, instead of forcing him to go to a long ceremony, they were going to hold a small gathering at their apartment after graduation day. To this, he had not been given the option to say no or be absent from it.

_Whatever makes her smile_.

He readjusted his position in the chair, and was about to put away his pod, when everyone in the reception area nearly jumped out of their skins after hearing a loud thud coming from inside one of the examination rooms. Tony's head instantly jerked up and he panicked for a moment when the nurse that had been in the room with Pepper all but ran outside. He was on his feet and before her in the blink of an eye, but before he could ask what had just happened, the nurse answered his unspoken question in between breaths.

"She's fine," she said and placed a hand on his shoulder. "She's totally fine, but…" she took in a deeper breath. "But we need your help."

"What? Why?"

"Mr. Summers… he… he passed out."

Tony could not hold back a smile. "I take it he saw the probe for the internal ultrasound?"

"Yes," the nurse said, trying to hold back the chuckle that was trying to escape her. "He… he saw the blood and… well, he's out like a light."

Tony nodded in a knowing manner, extremely familiar with what Scott had just seen being done to the redhead since he had forced himself to repeatedly watch it online in preparation for this visit, and he snickered.

"Just tell me where to put him."

The nurse was happy to comply.

xxxXXXxxx

The things he did for his woman, he was not sure he would have done for anyone else. In fact, he was not even sure _why_ he had even agreed to doing this in the first place; it was pointless, probably unhealthy for the three of them, and definitely stupid, borderline insane. And yet, here he was with her, because she had wanted it so. It was nearly the middle of the month of December, with winter and snow upon them, and the inventor and the ginger were at the beach.

At. The. Beach.

At thirty degrees Fahrenheit and a wind chill factor of twenty-two degrees.

Only idiots would be at the beach at this moment and in this weather, but even with his high IQ and her strategizing skills, they could act like idiots sometimes too. Acting like idiots was not new to them; they had been acting as idiots for the past two years by being apart or pretending that they were something they could never be: just friends.

Last December, they had spent the holidays stabbing each other in the heart by sending painful gifts to the other and by acting as if they were relishing their time together with someone they did not truly wanted to be with. This year, however, was going to be a _stark_ contrast to the previous winter holidays: they were going to spend them with family, friends, employees and then, hopefully, alone together in their own home, reveling in the other's presence and attentions as if it had always been the case between them and as if it would always be for years to come.

The ginger opened her eyes and stared at the sea before them, the waves crashing down against the rocks and over the edge of the beach, their power enhanced by the force of the wind that should have been biting into her skin but was not. All she felt was relief from her confinement at home and from the most uncomfortable side-effects of her pregnancy, which she was experiencing tenfold. She had wondered, a few times already, if Scott's mother had had such a uncommon pregnancy as well when she had been expecting the jock, and had the woman still been alive, she would have called her up a long time ago just to confirm that a mutant pregnancy was supposed to be and feel like this: everything but comfortable and all but irregular.

"It's so relaxing out here, don't you think?" Pepper asked with a satisfied exhale as she adjusted her position on the beach chair when her lower back had begun to hurt again. She was not even walking that much anymore since her exhaustion was becoming unbearable, and she had been sleeping away most of her days. The doctor had insisted that she walked at least once in the morning, but with her feet swollen and her back in constant pain, it was difficult for her to follow the woman's recommendation. She just wanted this pregnancy to be over with.

The lack of options for comfortable clothes was also becoming a major issue for her and, although she did not have that many places to go to, the fact that robes were becoming the only outfit that did not make her feel constrained was making her feel depressed. She was growing tired of all of these limitations she could do nothing about, and she had honestly expected Tony to have kicked her out when she would whine about how everything annoyed her. The inventor constantly tried his best to keep her happy but, even with all his research about pregnancy and its symptoms, he was yet to find anything that could make the last trimester any better for her. He had read about extreme cases of pregnancy discomfort, but he had never expected the girl to be in such misery all the time.

It had taken all of her willpower to get dressed for their outing today in anything other than her robe, and her current outfit was not all appropriate for the season. She was wearing a pair of flip-flops, a straw hat and a maternity set of clothes that consisted of shorts and a blouse that offered no protection from the current climate conditions in the least, but she did not feel anything other than relief from the uncomfortably high temperature that her body had been recently bothering her with, hence the reason why she had wanted to leave the apartment for a while.

"We should come here more often," she said and stretched her arms above her head before resting them on the back of the chair. "There's, like, no one around but us. It's so quiet."

She took in another deep breath and even smiled in contentment. When Tony did not respond to her question or make any comments about her idea, she turned to her left to stare at the poor boy that was shivering so hard one could almost hear his bones and teeth chattering.

"Tony?"

His blue orbs eyed her for a second, and if he had not been wearing layers upon layers of clothes (and a knit ski mask), she would have seen him smile. She frowned at his practically static posture and stood up from her chair. He continued to stare at her as she sat next to him on his beach chair, to his right, her front facing his.

"Are you not having fun?"

His only response was a jerky nod.

"You don't look like it. Are you mad at me?" she asked and he shook his head. "Why aren't you saying anything, then? Are you not enjoying this?"

He closed his eyes in preparation for pulling off his mask from his head and, a moment later, he finally took it off. The wind hit him straight in the face and, although he could not help to flinch, he still forced himself to remain as composed as possible. He exhaled in broken sighs to gather control over his quivering lips and jaw and then held her face in his gloved hands.

"Sorry, Pep. C-c-cold."

Her brow knitted and she instantly felt guilty for dragging him over here. She sometimes forgot how her hormones made her do or say things that were completely not normal and, since he hardly every complained about doing with her whatever thing she felt like undertaking, she had forgotten that her genius boy was still just a guy, not being affected by hormonal changes every second of the day.

"Let's go home," she finally said and smiled. "I think I've had enough for the day."

"Sure? We-we've only been h-he-here two hours."

Her smile widened at his attempt at pretending that he was not ready to leave the ice box just yet, and she could have sworn that her love for him had just instantaneously grown that much more for it. She took off her hat, leaned forward, and kissed him for a long time, hoping the skin-to-skin contact would somehow ease the coldness on his face. He returned the kiss as best as he could, yet, with frozen limbs and lips, it was difficult to do so. She then pulled away from him, put on his ski mask for him, stood up and pulled him up with her.

"I'm sure," she said with finality. "Let's go back to where it's warm and cuddle on the couch. Does that sound good?"

She did not have to see his entire face to know that he was beaming; the sparkle in his eyes told her so.

"Sounds like a plan to me."

"Good," she replied and allowed him to lead her away from the beach and to their car. She stared back over her shoulder for a second to see the ocean once more before she returned her attention to the genius in front of her and spoke again.

"Thank you for bringing me here, Tony. I really appreciate it."

"Anytime, Pep," he said without missing a beat and squeezed her hand. "You're my girl, right?"

Even now, years later, that phrase always made her stomach flip and her heart beat fast, and she could not help but to smile brighter and wider than before.

"Yup," she nodded. "And you're my boy."

The sparkle returned to his eyes and it was then her turn to squeeze his hand.

If only they had not been distracted by the other's company, they would have realized they were not the only ones currently at the beach. If only they had not been more worried about holding each other on their way back to the car, they would have seen the pair of eyes staring at their every move.

_Soon_, the hidden bystander thought. _Soon, your time will come_.

xxxXXXxxx

The Events Committee had really outdone itself this year, and it was evident in how much fun everyone had had so far that their sole purpose this year had been to make sure that every employee reaped the benefits of working for Tony Stark and Pepper Potts. This year, and in deep contrast with the previous ones, the Events Committee had given the employees the option to bring their families to the affair. The RSVP'ing had not stopped until the day before yesterday – the deadline. And today, the main hall of Stark Solutions was filled with families, music, food, and even Santa Claus, who had found time in his busy schedule to make an appearance for the kids.

Even though Tony could not remember what the Annual Stark Solutions Christmas Party had been like last year – he had spent most of the time avoiding Maya and hanging out by himself and away from the crowd – the pictures he had seen of it were enough proof that his employees loved what they did and liked working for the company. The hall looked ten times better than it did last time, and the band that had been hired for the party was much cheerier than the one they had had last year. Even the food was better, for that matter. Or maybe everything just _seemed_ better for Tony simply because he was actually looking forward to enjoying himself this year because, for the first time since the company's inception, Pepper was _his_ date.

Sadly for her, Pepper had not been able to dance much throughout the night due to her aches, but that did not mean that she had not been having fun watching everyone else be merry. Happy had been acting a fool on the dance floor, trying to impress any girl that was drunk enough to dance with him. So far, it had not worked out well for the retired jock. Roberta and Rhodey were off dancing somewhere as well, but only after they had been able to talk to David, as he was still out on active duty, and they had done so via the pod Tony had made for the man – just as he had done so for Virgil at some point.

_Speaking of which_, Pepper thought as her eyes scanned the crowd to find her father. Virgil had been dancing the night away, and to the ginger's and inventor's surprise, he had invited Diane Tincher as his date. She had not even known that her father and her ol' board member friend had started going out, but it was only fair since Pepper was now on her own and Loretta had begun dating someone else in Pittsburgh. It was about time that Virgil found happiness himself, especially now that all of his major responsibilities were off his plate.

_Speaking of plates_, she mused, feeling slightly guilty for relating dishes to Jarvis, but she could not help but to do so. The man still showed up at their apartment to help out whenever he could – something he had not done when Maya had lived there with Tony – and whenever Tony visited Stark International for a meeting or to see his dad, or when she visited the place herself to see her own father, Jarvis was always there and willing to cook for her whatever pregnancy cravings she had. Last time, he had made her a meal that had consisted of chopped pancakes with butter, mayo, mustard, scrambled eggs, three kinds of syrup and a diet coke. She was not sure how poor Jarvis had sat down to eat that with her with a straight face and without puking it all over the place.

_Dr. Ross was right_, Pepper thought. _There is no way I could've done this alone._

And lastly, and not surprisingly, Howard and Trish had come together to the party; making both Pepper and Tony expect to hear wedding bells soon. Pepper had always known that Trish really liked Howard, but she had not been sure if Howard even knew that the woman was attracted to him. It now appeared, however, that the old inventor had finally opened up his eyes and had realized that the kindhearted assistant was more than just another employee. Tony and Pepper were happy for them – happy for everyone, in fact.

She felt Tony's left arm move from the table to surround her shoulders and he pulled her to him. Pepper immediately snuggled even closer to him, snaked her arms around his waist and rested her head on his chest. Tony planted a kiss on the top of her head, leaned down to the side of her face and whispered to her.

"Party's almost over. Wanna dance the last song?"

She immediately nodded, smiled and, not a moment later, he was leading them both to the dance floor. This late into the gathering, the songs that had been playing had been slow songs to help people unwind for the night. But when the band saw Tony leading the redhead to the dance floor, they knew what they needed to do – what they had been asked to do.

_Here goes nothing_, he thought and had to keep himself from looking as if anything was out of the ordinary or the ginger would immediately be able to tell something was up. He slowly adjusted their arms so that they were in his favorite dancing position: her arms thrown over his shoulders, his arms around her waist – or as much as he could grab of it with her belly in the way – and the sides of their faces touching. Pepper could not stand for long, let alone move around too much, but she made every effort possible to keep her body pain to herself, if only to give Tony the one dance he wanted with her.

She closed her eyes and let him lead their slow motions and, as a song she did not recognize began playing, she felt his lips brush against her left ear and he began to sing the lyrics of the song for her – just as he had done so many times before, including two Christmases ago. This time, however, there was no Maya or Scott watching them from afar, and no reason for them to pretend that their actions and words originated from having just a close friendship rather from feelings of romantic love.

There was no more pretending. For that, he was glad.

_Hold me close and hold me fast  
><em>_The magic spell you cast  
><em>_This is la vie en rose_

A smile graced her face and she did just as he had _asked_: she tightened her grip on him and he responded by placing a small kiss on her exposed shoulder.

_When you kiss me, heaven sighs  
><em>_And though I close my eyes  
><em>_I see la vie en rose_

She giggled when he briefly pulled away from her only to slowly twirl them both around to match the rhythm of the music, but he then returned them both to their initial positions, completely unaware that all eyes in the hall were on them as he continued to sing to her.

_When you press me to your heart  
><em>_I'm in a world apart  
><em>_A world where roses bloom  
><em>_And when you speak, angels, sing from above  
><em>_Everyday words seem  
><em>_To turn into love songs_

Pepper threw her head back in a soft laugh and he laughed along with her. It was not as if the lyrics he was singing to her or the actions they were engaging in were funny – she actually thought they were incredibly romantic – but something inside her chest made her feel happier than she had ever been. She could not quite describe what the feeling was or where exactly it was coming from within her, but she knew that it was due to being with him, after all this time, and finding that they could still act and feel as they did the first time they had realized they were in love.

She closed her eyes again, but when she then heard him take in a deep breath and exhale slowly, she frowned for an instant, wondering if he was suddenly upset about something. She tried pulling her face away from his shoulders to face him, but he tenderly held her even closer to his body, kissed the side of her face to show to her everything was alright, and continued singing the lyrics to the song. Although, he changed them to suit his current needs.

Despite the song being foreign to her and this being the first time she had ever heard of it, she became immediately aware that what the band was singing and what Tony was currently whispering in her ear were not the same words. At the start of the next set of lyrics, when he sung the first line, it appeared that his and the band's singing were going to match. However, when she realized that the final lyrics to the actual song only had three lines and he continued to sing even when the band was not doing so anymore, she became aware of the crucial moment that had finally arrived.

_ Give your heart and soul to me  
><em>_And say you'll marry me  
><em>_It's you, the one I want_

He then slid his right hand down from her waist and dug it inside his pocket to take out the ring he had been preparing to give to her since last month. Pepper's eyes filled with tears as she saw and felt him slide his palm back up to her hand, ring held tightly in between his fingers as he readied to slide it on the appropriate finger of her left hand. He then stared deeply into her eyes, still swaying them to the wordless tune of the melody, and continued singing his version of the song.

_And if you want to marry me  
><em>_Just go and say 'I do'  
><em>_And let everyone know the one I love is you_

By now, it was clear to everyone what Tony was about to do – or had already done – and the only sound in the hall came from the soft music still playing in the background for them, extended longer than normal, courtesy of the band. Pepper felt Tony trying to get down on one knee, but she kept him from doing so. When he frowned at her in confusion, thinking she had just declined his marriage proposal, she smiled brightly and shook her head.

"You've done enough of that for me. You… you don't have to… for me to say: yes. For me to say: I do."

The moment Tony's face beamed with a smile and he then slid the ring onto her finger, everyone gasped a breath they had been holding since they had realized what was happening before their eyes. And when the deal was sealed with a lingering kiss, the entire crowd broke into a loud cheer, claps and catcalling, causing Tony and Pepper to snicker nervously when they were reminded that they were not alone.

Pepper covered her face with her right hand and rested her forehead on his shoulder, and Tony dug his face in her neck. The tears of joy that were spilling from her eyes were reflected on many others watching the spectacle. Once they both felt composed enough to pull away, they found themselves under a spotlight.

"I think that was a _yes_, ladies and gentlemen, what do you think?" the lead singer of the band asked over the microphone and the multitude nodded and clapped again. "I think so too!" the man added as he pointed to the happy couple. "Congratulations on your engagement, Mr. Stark and Miss Potts!"

xxxXXXxxx

Tony sat on the floor of his living room, working on his laptop before him on the coffee table while his girl – his _fiancée_, slept on the couch behind him. It was around two in the morning on Christmas Day, and the last of the visitors to the impromptu gathering they had hosted in their apartment had left half an hour ago. Pepper had tried her best to play hostess, but it had been mostly he, Jarvis and Roberta that had handled the details of the event.

Only family and friends had attended the small party, which had also doubled as Tony's college graduation celebration, but that had been enough for the pair to be left exhausted and in need of some relaxing time. Pepper had almost immediately passed out after midnight had hit and gifts had been exchanged, but all sleep had abandoned him when he had turned on the television to learn about some unexpected news.

His eyes briefly gazed upon the report he was watching of a break-in that had occurred inside _Pym Industries_, and he had no doubt that it had been caused by Rhona Erwin, seeing as she was still on the loose. He had been counting his blessings that, other than the surprise attack that the lunatic Goth had pulled on them, they had been left alone for the most part even though missions had popped up here and there. Yet, thankfully for him, and with Pepper's help via the ROI, they had been easy assignments; their teamwork preventing any of the missions from escalating into something worse.

It still bothered him, however, that neither of them had been able to find anything to prove or disprove what Rhona had told Tony about having a price on their heads. He could think of many people that wanted him dead, but not that many that could want his fiancée to suffer the same fate other than just to hurt him. They had investigated anyone and everyone they could have thought about, but all their leads were nothing but dead ends so far.

_Maybe she was just full of it_, Tony thought with the slightest amount of hope. _Maybe she was just trying to scare me._

And she had, but this time, he was going to be smart about his fear; he was not going to jump to conclusions or take actions without truly thinking about them first. He was not going to send Pepper off somewhere or keep her from finding out what he planned to do, and he was definitely going to consider her opinion if the time came to do something drastic about whatever or whoever had painted a bull's-eye on their foreheads.

_She's staying with me. They __**both**__ are._

He stared at his exposed chest and could not help but to smile at one of Pepper's Christmas gifts for him. Days after their engagement, Pepper had added an extra gift to her list: the one he was currently wearing around his neck. She had gotten him a military-style dog tag, similar to the ones her father had returned with from the Middle East – and where she had gotten the idea from in the first place – and had had it engraved on both sides.

On the front side of it, she had had it engraved to read: TONY STARK – RESCUED ON 9-17-11. At first, the inventor had not understood her gift even though he was familiar with the date carved on it, leading her to explain to him that, since the day they had met on the roof of the Tomorrow Academy, she had essentially _adopted_ him and all of his issues, and that she had pretty much "rescued him" like a dog from the pound, adding in the pun of her superhero identity. Initially, Tony had found her comparison to be a little bit of an insult to him, but when she had clarified to him that he had also rescued her that same day they had met, he had felt a little bit better about it. His slightly offended feeling did not last long, though, as when he flipped over the dog tag and had read the back, it had made him smile widely.

PROPERTY OF PEPPER POTTS-STARK. IF FOUND, PLEASE RETURN TO STARK SOLUTIONS.

He had thought it hilarious that the message was not referring to the tag itself, but to its intended wearer, and he was not sure what had made him happier: the fact that she considered him to be hers, or the fact that she was already calling herself his by adding his name to hers before they officially exchanged vows.

Maybe it was all of the above.

Or maybe it had been the fact that she had loved her engagement ring and its engraving so much that she had started another scrapbooking project that was just about themselves, which she had titled PEPPERONY, and was filling it up with their story and how they got to where they were today. Tony had been accurate in his assumption that she would find the error in the engraving amusing, weird and cute, and she had let him know, in any way she could, that he could have not thought of a better idea than to keep the inscription mishap intact.

He sighed loudly in happiness at the thought of spending the rest of his life with her, stretched his arms over his head and briefly closed his eyes. He then turned around to stare at his slumbering ginger and carefully placed a hand on her belly. He waited to see if she would wake up with his move, but when she continued to sleep peacefully, his eyes landed on the bump that held the baby that he had always known and had preached was going to be a boy, and he began talking to him.

"You should've been my son, you know?" he whispered and rubbed her belly. "If your mommy and I hadn't been so stupid, I would've been your daddy."

Tony glanced at the engagement ring on her left hand and smiled.

"I hope it's cool with you that your real dad is not going to be with your mom. I hope it's OK that it's me who will help raise you and not him. I mean, he's still going to be around and you'll still be able to see him, but I'll be around a lot more than he will be."

He stared at Pepper again to make sure she was still asleep and he then returned his attention to the baby.

"I love your mommy very much, you know? I love her so damn much, and I hope you understand that I'm not trying to replace your dad. You don't have to like me or even love me as if I was your dad. All I ask is that you let me be with your mom. We can be friends, if you want, but I'm still going to ground you if you mess up. I'm still going to keep you in line, and I will send you to your room if you misbehave."

Tony swallowed hard.

"But if you need someone to talk to, or to help you with school, I can do that for you, too. And if you want to bring over your friends and hang around, I'll leave you alone for that. Friends are important, too. And if one day you like a girl and want to impress her… I'll just let your uncle Rhodey help you with that, because I suck at it. I still don't know what I did to impress your mom."

He smirked and stared at Pepper again. "But it worked, whatever it was."

His eyes returned to her belly and he sighed.

"But anyway, your mommy is very tired right now and I need to move her off of this couch and to where it's comfortable, or she's going to be in so much pain tomorrow. Can you do her a favor and let her sleep tonight? She really needs to rest. Can you do that for her?"

To Tony's surprise, the baby kicked and hit his hand. The impact had not been hard enough to wake Pepper up, but it had been enough to bring a smile to the inventor's face.

"I'm gonna take that as a 'yes' and a 'shut up already, Stark'."

The baby kicked again and Tony snickered.

"Alright! Alright! I'll shut up," Tony chuckled. "And thank you," the blue-eyed boy added before he stood up from the floor. He then took Pepper off the couch and into his arms, and led them in the direction of their room, where he hoped they could both recover the energy they would need for preparing for the next stage of their lives: having a baby and getting married.

And if Tony had any say in this, and even though they had only been engaged for a few days, he was going to get with the program and start planning the wedding as soon as possible. With any luck, they could get married very soon. This was not going to be a two-year engagement either, or one that ended in a breakup like it had been with Scott and her, and Maya and he, and he was going to make sure that everything was speedy and taken care of for them.

Pepper Potts-Stark was going to be her official name rather soon.

Or so he thought.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** The song is called _La Vie en Rose_ and it was in _Wall-E_. A link to the song can be found on my profile. Sooo…who's happy now? :)


	7. Chapter 6

**A/N: **Wow! You almost didn't get this chapter today since FFNET went down for a while! Luckily, it's now back.

**Guest Review Responses**

**I'm scared now... What do you mean 'or so he thought'?! Argh what now? **Don't be scared. Or, at least not yet ;)

**pepperony4evah:There is something ... something about the baby, isnt there? Its good that 'pepperony 'makes some sense. If not its the engraver's hand that would have suffered a dislocation. Much as i'd like to see an end to this story, i feel kinda sad too. I mean for a while the first thing i did after getting up was to check whether this has been updated. Im gonna miss this.**

**If it isnt too much to ask can you write another story, a light one, bout pep and tony falling for each other. A stroy where pep doesnt immediately fall for tony and they kinda start off as enemies but fall irrevocably in love little by little. **Well, there are still three more stories after this one for this saga to end, and I have about three other ones in my mind.

**Shreya:-Me.! I am too happy for this closeness between them... and FINALLY.. they are engaged... now please let pepper call her pepper potts stark..officially..:) **Well, I'm happy you're happy! And Pepper Potts-Stark certainly has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? Get it? Ring? Engagement… ring… yeah… not a comedian XD

**What do you mean, "or so he thought"? Aw hell no!** XD Just stay tuned, my Faithful Reader :)

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 6: January<strong>

She was bawling her eyes out, handkerchief in hand and pointing at the television as the credits rolled on the screen. Tony was sitting with her on the couch, trying his best not to laugh at her while he massaged her feet. It was a good thing that they were alone because he was sure that no one else would be able to contain their laughter as well as he had learned to do now, especially when the situation was as hilarious as this.

The redhead sniffled and blew her nose again, her shoulders shaking while she tried to calm down her sadness and fanned herself with her hands. One would think that they had just finished watching a romantic movie, or a tragic story or documentary, or maybe even some terrible live news report, but the screen currently showed the ending credits to the game show _Wheel of Fortune_.

Tony eyed his fiancée as her cries began to die down, but when a new wave of tears caught her, he sighed, lowered her feet to the ground and then slid to sit next to her. He opened his arms toward her and she practically threw herself at him. She surrounded his neck with her arms and he patted and rubbed her back, whispering words of comfort in her ears. Now that she could not see his face anymore, however, he took the opportunity to smile and bite down on his tongue to keep the laughter from coming out.

"It's gonna be OK, Pep," he assured her. "The guy's coming back for the next show."

"I-I know," she sniffled. "But… but if it had been me there during the final round, I WOULD'VE LOST!" her crying resumed.

"But it wasn't you, Pepper," he ran his hand down her hair. "It was that dude and he got the final phrase right. Even if you didn't get it right, he still won, right?"

"Yes, but-but… how the hell did I get it wrong? HUH? It makes NO sense that I got it-got it… w-w-w-wrrrrroonngggg!" she began wailing again, held onto her groom-to-be that much tighter, and Tony flinched when he felt his eardrums about to give.

"Baby, you didn't get it wrong. You… you just didn't have an answer."

"I DID have an answer!"

"OK," he immediately relented. "You DID have an answer, but it doesn't matter that it was wrong."

"YES, it DOES matter that I guessed wrong! How could I get _Stark Solutions_ wrong?!"

Tony clenched his eyes shut, held back a laugh and just let her cry again. The final round for the show had had the participant guess a company name, which had happened to be their own company. The only letter that had been missing had been the letter R, and Pepper had guessed the phrase to be _Stank Solutions_. Tony's eyes had widened and his head had snapped to look at her in shock that she had gotten it wrong, and after the phrase had been revealed to be the name of the very company they owned, he saw the second Pepper's heart broke and she had begun to cry.

That had been about ten minutes ago and she was still crying, thanks to the _lovely_ pregnancy hormones coursing through her, which had started her crying in the first place.

"Pep, come on. It's silly that you blame yourself for this," he finally pulled back and held her cheeks in his hands. "It's just a game show and nothing was lost. Besides, it's not your fault that you got it wrong, right? It's… it's, uhm, the pregnancy, right? You didn't sleep well last night… and, uhm, you're tired. Right? That's all."

"I," she sniffled. "Yes, I guess."

He kissed her forehead. "Just forget about it, alright?"

"Yeah," she said as she nodded, her tears finally stopping. "Yeah, it's stupid."

"Very stupid," he said and kissed her nose. "So stupid it's not worth crying about."

"You're right, Tony," she said. "It's not worth crying about it," she continued, smiled at him, looked down at her feet for a second and then shrieked. "OH, MY GOD! My nail polish is falling apart!"

And as she began crying again, Tony hugged her once more.

xxxXXXxxx

He had gone to the convenience store for her at midnight to get her _Kit Kats_. He had gone to the beach in the dead of winter with her because she felt like it. He had even taken time off work until the baby was born, but he had never expected to be doing THIS for her. Moreover, he did not expect to be enjoying it this much.

But he was not going to admit it to anyone just yet.

"Is the pressure OK, Mr. Stark?"

The inventor moaned in response.

"Very well, then."

The massage room at the day spa Pepper had dragged him to was barely lit with candles and incense, had relaxing music playing in the background, and hosted two massage tables next to each other so that he and the ginger could be there at the same time for their _couples massage_. He was covered by nothing else other than a towel – as was she, and a very talented pair of masseuses was making him want to drool on the table.

At least he was no longer getting that facial anymore, although his face did feel a lot cleaner and smoother because of it now. If only he had not tried eating the cucumbers they had put on his eyes…

He was going to be tasting that face cream in his mouth for weeks!

The original plan had been to come here for Pepper to get a pedicure and a manicure done, but they had ended up booking themselves for a spa weekend at the resort. Their morning had begun with breakfast being delivered to their hotel room after a long night of cuddling, giggling and wedding planning, happening all at once. And, for the first time in weeks, they had been able to have a good night sleep without the redhead waking up in the middle of the night with some ache, craving or as a result of a bad dream. Maybe a change of scenery was all that was needed for her to truly relax, and if she was relaxed, so was he.

He had been happy to find out that Pepper was also looking at a swift wedding, a small one that did not require much planning at that, and perhaps one that would take place in the next six months, shortly after she gave birth. Just as he did, she did not see any point on waiting longer than a year or about making a big deal out of the wedding after everything they had gone through to get where they were now. Had things been different, they might have gone the traditional route with everything, but with the way their lives had always been since they had met, traditionalism was not really in the cards.

_"The baby is going to change a lot of things,"_ she had told him. _"And the wedding is just a formality, really. Besides, I think we've already married each other, right here, a long time ago,"_ she had added with a smile and had pointed at his heart. He could not have agreed with her more.

Shortly after they had had breakfast in bed, they had used the hot tub in their presidential suite. An hour after they had dried up and dressed in comfortable clothes for the day's events, they had gone downstairs to begin their private day of relaxation with a foot massage, followed by body wraps, a facial and they were now enjoying a full-body massage.

The blue-eyed boy let out another satisfied moan and, when he heard his girl giggle immediately afterwards, he opened one eye and stared at her. Due to her state, she was not able to lie on her stomach as he was, so she was lying on her right side, facing him, while her two masseuses gave her a pregnancy massage to ease her pains.

"What's so funny, Pep?"

"You," she said without missing a beat. "You were whining about this being only for girls and now look at you: I think you're enjoying it more than I am."

"No, I'm not," he said, and when she smirked at him and raised her eyebrow, he rolled his only opened eye. "OK! Fine! Yes, I admit it. It's not as bad as I thought it was going to be."

"Thought so," she beamed a smug smile. "We can do this again if you want to, you know? We can even make it a monthly thing. I won't tell anyone."

Tony winked at her as his only response and then closed his eye when he felt a hand begin to rub the sore spot he had been developing on his left shoulder blade after Rhona's attack. Pepper had been massaging it very often lately, and he had even gone to a chiropractor for it. For some reason, it would not stop hurting every now and then, especially when he felt stressed.

X-rays had shown that he had bruised his bone and partially ripped the muscle there, and even though he was under treatment for it, the pain was not getting any better for him. It was overdue, really, to have some lasting effect of so much battling with villains, and he was actually surprised that a lame hit against concrete debris caused by Rhona's ray blast had produced so much trouble and damage that not even the Crimson Dynamo had been able to claim to do to him.

It was only fair, he acknowledged, since Pepper's encounters with crime had also left her with a lot of reminders of her troubles. She had a scar on her neck from Ghost's kidnapping, a fading scar on her belly from the AIM encounter during the Women History conference, and a tiny scar on her scalp from when she had fallen from the tenth floor during the Maggia mission – and that was not counting the psychological scarring of it all. He had also had some scars here and there, but they had gone away when he had taken the Extremis formula to cure his heart. In fact, now that he thought about it, he was actually surprised that his shoulder issue was not already cured by the enhanced formula.

_Oh, well! It could've been worse._

And it could have: he could have died or she could have died or the world could have ended in the blink of an eye. It was only a miracle that they had not died yet considering how difficult and dangerous it had been for them for a while, and considering how many brushes with death they had encountered. His first two years as Iron Man now seemed like child's play, a piece of cake, a dress rehearsal for what had come afterwards. This was the calm before the storm, he knew, and one of these days he was going to find out what Rhona had meant about his and Pepper's lives being in danger again. The thought alone made him cringe, but so far, there was nothing else he could do that he had not already done.

He opened his eyes again and stared at Pepper as she smiled in delight with every stroke of pressure she felt on her tired back and feet, eyes completely closed and body relaxed. It was still amazing to him how they were now able to spend time like this, alone and without interruptions – at least until the baby was born. He felt a pang of regret that it had taken them so long to get here, but there was no sense in dwelling on what he could do nothing about. What mattered now was the present and, at the current time, they were happy and together and in love and committed to one another. And he was going to milk that for all it was worth before they found themselves trapped in the middle of some grand scheme or another major event in their life.

He sighed.

If only he could see the future. If only he could change the past. If only he could freeze the present at his will.

If only.

He extended his right arm, stroked her face and she slowly opened her eyes to stare back at him. The massage tables were placed very close to one another, leaving only enough space for the masseuses to walk in between them when needed, so reaching over to her side and touching her was no trouble at all for him. He tenderly slid his fingers down her cheek and then onto her lips and she gave them a light kiss. He smiled at her gesture, stroked her cheek once more and then his face became serious. His eyes filled with raw emotion, brought on by his many thoughts and feelings, and he whispered to her what crossed his mind this very moment, not truly caring that they had a very observant audience around them in the room.

"I love you, Pepper Potts. Don't you ever forget that. Don't you ever leave me again."

Pepper frowned for a moment, worried about what could possibly be bringing out this conversation between them. They were supposed to be enjoying their time off together, not thinking about the horrible things that had happened before or could happen again in the near future. She slid her hand up from her waist, held onto his that still rested on her cheek and she then laced their fingers together as much as possible in their awkward positions.

"Not even worth worrying about it, Tony," she replied. "Not worth our time. It's not happening again."

"I know," he told her. "But I just had to say it. I just had to put it out there."

"I understand," she told him with sincerity, and she _did_ understand how he felt and why he had said those words to her just now. Their apparent honeymoon phase after getting back together was finally coming to an end, and it appeared as if he was starting to see how much their lives were about to change in two short months when they became parents. They were still so young and inexperienced. Pepper had not even finished college yet, but there was no way to slow down time or undo what was already done. All they could do now was hope for the best and stick together through the highs and lows that were about to come.

_In sickness and in health_, she mused. '_Til death do us part._

When one of the masseuses let them know it was time to go on to the next part of their weekend of relaxation, she kissed his fingers and let go of his hand to signal the end of the conversation. However, the look in the inventor's eyes told her that this chat was far from over, and for an instant she wondered if getting married and having this kid together was truly the best for everyone; especially for the baby – and that was without even bringing Scott into the complex picture of the two of them.

Was this why her birth mother and father had not stuck together after finding out that she was on the way? Was this the reason why she had ended up being given up for adoption? Was having a kid out of wedlock and before one was emotionally matured and ready really that stressing on the couple? Was this the reason why her birth mom had ended up making her home out of _Rosedale & Rosehill Cemetery_ way before her time should have been up? Would she and Tony be able to overcome this new challenge in their lives or would her past repeat itself?

There was only one way of finding out the answers to all these questions, but that option also left no room for mistakes on their part. She could only pray and hope that their decision to move forward with what they had together did not end up turning around and biting them in the ass. She could only hope that Tony and she were strong enough, and committed enough, to survive what was to come.

Time would definitely tell.

xxxXXXxxx

Pepper continued crying, coughing and pointing a finger at her fiancé as she had been doing for the past ten minutes in their suite at the hotel. She was lying on her side in the middle of the bed, rolling from side to side as much as she could while her feet and fists constantly hit the mattress. She was starting to think that she was sincerely going to die of laughter today – or maybe even get killed by Tony Stark himself – for making fun of him. But she did not care. The moment was just too priceless to ignore, even though she could tell by his face that he was honestly not enjoying her mocking at all.

The last part of their weekend spa had finally ended about an hour ago. They had then returned to their room to watch a movie and have some popcorn – or so Pepper had thought. Tony had gotten dinner sent to their room and had hired someone to decorate the room with rose pedals, candles and add romantic music to the ambience (Celine Dion, thank you very much)*. Everything had been going according to plan until Tony had taken off his shoes and had gasped.

After that, the romantic evening he had secretly planned for them had been effectively ruined without a doubt.

"This is so NOT funny, Potts! Help me get this off!"

"NO!" she said for the millionth time and again pointed at him. "I already told you that I won't until you let me take a picture of it!"

"NO!" he glared at her again. "You're NOT taking a picture of my tragedy!"

Pepper scoffed, sat up in bed and stared at Tony as he rummaged through her makeup bag to find anything that would help him with his predicament, since she refused to give him a hand.

"It's not a tragedy, Stark. You're so melodramatic. It's just… ahem, hehe… a… hahaha… HAHAHAHAHA!"

She could not even finish her sentence before laughter found her again, which only caused the genius to become that much more irritated with her.

"UGH!" Tony snarled, angrily put away her cosmetic bag back in the bathroom, returned to the chair of the sitting area of their suite and then pouted some more as he glared at his feet. "This is so not the way I planned this evening to go."

"Really?" Pepper asked, not at all fazed by his angry looks and posture. "Because I could've sworn you planned this ahead of time just to make me laugh."

"I'm not that clever," he admitted but continued to frown. "And I'm most definitely not this selfless. I'd do anything to make you happy, yes, except leaving you and… and this…" he pointed at his feet. "I just didn't know _this_ was even an option until now."

"Aw, Tony!" she bit back her giggles for now and walked over to him. She had to will herself not to point at him again and at the source of his anger, but she could not help but chuckle a couple of more times on her way to him. "It's fixable. EASILY fixable. All you have to do is let me take a picture of it and then I'll fix it for you."

Tony's eyes switched from his feet to her face, glared at her and then crossed his arms over his chest.

"No. I said: no pictures, Potts. This is not something I want to remember when I'm old."

"Oh, come on! It could've happen to anyone, right? Besides, you already submitted yourself to laser hair removal, how bad can this really be?" she sat on the ottoman where his feet lay and she wiggled his big toes with her fingers. "You look sooooo cute!"

"Stop that!" he spat but did not pull his feet away from her. "And laser hair removal is SO not the same as having fucking HOT PINK nail polish on my toenails! And what the fuck are those sparkling things for?"

"They're decorative. Duh! And, you wouldn't have them if you hadn't told the girl to do it," she let go of his toes and rolled her eyes at him.

"I didn't KNOW what she was asking me!" Tony defended himself. "She-she… she had an accent, alright? And I didn't want to seem rude asking her to repeat what she had just said to me about three times already!"

"Well, you should've looked down at some point during the pedicure!"

"Well, I didn't! I was too busy staring at you!"

"You weren't staring at me!" she crossed her arms over her chest as well. "You were just digging holes with your eyes into the guy that was giving me my manicure and pedicure."

"No, I wasn't!"

"Really? Then why did I have to snap my fingers at you TWICE to stop glaring at him?"

"Because… uhm… because he was… uh, cute?" he shrugged, his eyes shifted left and right and he began to pull on his collar.

"Cute? Really?"

"W-What?" he began to stumble over his words. "Don't _you_ think he was cute?"

Pepper held back a smirk, immediately knowing where his distraction had come from and decided to have some fun with it.

"Actually, I think he was more than cute. He was dreamy. Hot. A total hunk. Did you see how much muscle he had? Damn! He could have lifted me, the baby _and_ the freaking pedicure chair at the same time if he'd wanted to."

Tony's arms unfolded, his shoulders sagged, his forearms ending on his lap, and he stared at them.

"Really? I-I didn't know you liked guys like that."

"Well, I did date Happy and Scott, right?" Pepper said with a smile.

When Tony's head hung even more, she knew she had to stop her game. She stood up from the ottoman, walked over to the chair and sat on his lap while being careful not to let her entire weight paralyze him for life. Tony rested his right hand on her back and his left arm across her legs but did not stare at her until she lifted his face by the chin with her hand.

"I don't like guys like that. I'm just messing with you. I like guys like you. Just you."

Tony pouted. "That's not nice, Pepper. That's not nice at all."

"What?" Pepper shrugged and ran her fingers down his hair. "Like you don't check out other girls."

"I actually don't."

"Sure, you don't," she rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Because guys in general don't like to have all the girls running after them. And like you don't know that you're one of the most sought-after guys on the planet and can get any girl by just winking at her."

The blue-eyed boy looked down for a second, as if considering her words, and he then looked up and winked at her.

"Like that?"

Pepper gave him a huge smile. "Like that."

She lowered her head and kissed him. As she did so, she opened one eye to aim her pod's camera and took a picture of his polished feet. She then pulled away and bit down on her lip, and Tony frowned in return.

"And you're so easily distracted, too," she said to him and she showed him the picture of his feet.

"PEPPER!" he stopped her from getting up from his lap by holding down on her while she struggled to release herself from his grip. "Dammit, Pepper! Delete that picture!"

"NO!"

"YES!"

"NO WAY!" she said, and before Tony could take the pod away from her hands, she sent the picture to the printer back at home. "HA! This picture is so totally going in our Pepperony album!"

"Ugh!" Tony sighed and then stopped struggling with her. "Why, Pepper? _Why_ are you doing this to me?"

"Because you're cute and I love you?"

Tony opened his mouth to respond, having expected her reply to be an insult, but when he realized that it was not, his original comeback left him.

"Well, I… could you just, please, not show that picture to anyone?"

"Well, that depends."

"On what?"

"On how well you do in convincing me to keep it between you and me."

Tony smirked, stood up from the chair and, to the redhead's surprise, he carried her with him with no problem and took her to the bed. He carefully laid her down on it, towered over her and began slowly kissing her face and neck as he whispered to her.

"I can think of a few things I could do for that. But…"

"But?" she asked, her heart already racing in anticipation for whatever he had in mind for them. It had been a while since they had been like this since she had been highly uncomfortable and tired as of late, so she was truly looking forward to having him again.

"First things first," he sultrily whispered into her ear, nibbled on her earlobe a few times in a way he knew drove her wild, and ran a hand up and down her left thigh. When he heard her begin to breath fast and felt her hands searching for the hem of his shirt, he pulled away from her, as if he had not just been making out with her, turned around in place and began walking away from her and in the direction of the bathroom, not stopping until he reached the entrance and rested his right shoulder against the doorframe, arms crossed over his chest.

It took her a moment to come out of her daze. When she did so, she stared at him in confusion and blinked several times. He shrugged, gave her a wink and a triumphant smile and then spoke again.

"First things first," he repeated. "So, before you get any from me, you need to help me get this nail polish removed."

Her jaw went slack and her face became flustered in shock, anger and embarrassment, which only caused him to throw his head back in laughter and hold his stomach with his arms to keep himself from falling onto the floor. She pushed herself up on the bed by resting her weight on her bent elbows and then glared at the inventor who was just now coming down from his mocking of her reaction.

He took in deep breaths in between dying chuckles, wiped a few tears from his eyes and then pointed a finger at his fiancée.

"Two can play at this game, baby. And I think we just tied."

He then turned around, ignored her gasp of surprise, and began walking inside the bathroom to look for her makeup bag again, but not before he made sure to wave her over to join him.

"Hurry up, Potts! These toenails ain't getting cleaned on their own. And _you_ ain't getting laid any faster if you don't get your pretty ass over here to help me!"

Pepper groaned loudly, threw her legs over the side of the bed and all but stomped her way over to the bathroom to join him. She pushed him out of the way of the vanity and angrily grabbed her cosmetics bag in her hands while Tony just stared at her in amusement.

"I hate you, Stark!"

Tony laughed even harder than before, hugged her from behind despite her struggling to push him off her as she searched her cosmetics bag for the nail polish remover and a cotton ball, and he then kissed the side of her face with a smile, not even bothering to remove his face from hers as he spoke again.

"And I hate you too, Potts."

xxxXXXxxx

The four men sat at the dining table in the Potts-Stark apartment (or the Stark-Potts apartment; they had not decided on a name yet) looking everything but calm. Before each of them laid a bowl filled with a liquid of some sort – it really could not be called soup or even _food_ by the looks of it – for them to eat for lunch. The dish was composed of a slimy concoction that Tony would have sworn looked like the type of foodstuff that had long ago gone bad to the point that it had begun to grow stuff of its own. Inedible stuff, in fact.

"Anthony," Howard elbowed his son and covered his mouth with his hand so as to prevent the cheering ginger in the kitchen from hearing his words. "I thought you said Pepper had learned how to cook."

"She did… she does know how…" he gulped, his eyes never leaving the slimy liquid that had now begun to bubble. "She's very good at it, actually, but... lately… since she got pregnant… well…"

"This is worse than when she used to make me eat those dirt and leaves cakes she made when she was little," Virgil said with a frown. "Those I at least knew were nothing but mud. But this…"

"Maybe it's not that bad," Happy reasoned, grabbed a spoon, dipped it inside the liquid and stirred it a few times before pulling it out.

Tony's frown deepened when he saw that the liquid slowly slid down from the silverware back into the bowl and a shiver ran down his spine. He half expected some weird tentacle to rise up out of the brew, wrap around his neck in a choke hold and try to pull him into the bowl.

"Well, at least the spoon didn't melt," the inventor said and sighed. "Maybe our stomachs won't grow holes from this."

Howard patted his son's shoulder in a comforting manner and sighed as well. "I'm sorry you won't make it to your wedding day, Son. It was good while it lasted, right?"

Tony nodded. "I just never thought it would end like this."

"Oh, come on, dudes!" Happy said with a mouthful of the liquid, part of it sliding down his chin. "It's not that bad," he swallowed. "In fact, it's not bad at all!"

The other three men stared at one another and then at the jock as he took another spoonful of the liquid. They all swallowed hard, grabbed their spoons, dipped them inside the bowl and then shoved them down their throats. Tony's eyes began to water. Howard felt as if his throat was on fire and he repeatedly hit his chest with his fist, and Virgil wanted to throw it all back up into the bowl and run away from the house, but none of them were able to do anything about their predicament when Pepper returned to the dining room from the kitchen and placed a hand on Tony's back.

"How are you liking it, uh? It's good, isn't?" she asked with an expectant smile and a sparkle in her eyes. "It took me all morning to get it finished but it was worth it, wasn't it?"

"It's delicious, Pepper!" Happy said, the only one that seemed to be honestly enjoying the meal. "How come you hadn't made this before?"

Pepper shrugged. "I hadn't felt like cooking lately, but when I heard my dad and Howard were visiting, I just had to make something especial. So, do you like it, Happy?"

"I love it, Pep! Can I have some more?" Happy asked and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "Please?"

"Yup. I'll get you some more," she replied with a bright smile, looked at her husband-to-be and rubbed his scalp. "How about you, honey? Do you like it, too?"

Tony slowly swallowed the stew, looked up at her and gave her a slight nod. Pepper continued to run her fingers down his hair and smiled even wider at him. He then finally opened his mouth, after several swallows that did not help him get rid of the taste, and blinked away the tears which were now visible to the ginger.

"Tony, why are you crying?"

"Because," he cleared his throat. "Because it's so good?"

"Aw, you're so sweet!" she said and then placed a kiss on the top of his head. "How about you, Dad? Howard? How is it?"

"It's like nothing I've ever had before," Howard said after drinking his entire glass of soda. "It's very… unique."

"That good, huh?" Pepper asked and then stared at her own father. "Well, what about you, Dad? You haven't said anything. How is it?"

"Tony is a very lucky man," Virgil said as he tried his best to keep the small amount he had just swallowed from coming back up.

"Aww!" Pepper said and clutched her hands to her chest. "If you're liking this so much, just wait until you get desert! I made pie!"

"What-uhm," Tony cleared his throat again. "What kind of pie, Pep?"

"Oh, it's nothing you've heard of before," she replied with a dismissive wave of the hand and began walking away from the table to the kitchen. "I kinda made it up this morning."

Tony's brow knitted at her words and he had to hold back a whimper. "R-Really?"

"Really," Pepper said, her back to them as she opened the oven and took out the pie. "You're going to love it."

"If we survive this meal," Virgil said under his breath but Pepper caught his voice.

"What's that, Dad?"

"Uhm…" Virgil panicked and looked at the other men for backup. Luckily for him, Tony jumped to his defense.

"He just said: if only Rhodey had been here."

"Oh," Pepper mused. "You're right. If I knew we could overnight a bowl and a slice of pie to him at the Air Force Academy, I'd send it right now."

"I'd fucking suit up and deliver it to him right now if I could, too," Tony said under his breath. "Lucky bastard."

"What, Tony?" Pepper asked from the kitchen as she began cutting up the pie.

"I said: If only Rhodey were so lucky to have been here right now, too. Unlucky bastard!"

"Oh, well," Pepper shrugged. "He'll be here over the summer. I'll make some more then."

"If you do," Howard began, "Make sure you make it EXACTLY the same. We can't let him miss out on it, right?"

"Oh, of course!" Pepper said as it if were obvious. "Now, who wants melon/strawberry/coconut/chili/mustard/banana/sushi pie?"

Three of the four men inwardly groaned.

xxxXXXxxx

Tony swore under his breath in frustration as he ran toward the roof of Stark International after a six-hour long meeting with the board. As opposed to their regular meetings, the inventor had had to sit through the entire meeting to evaluate the year's accomplishments and profits, prepare for the new year's goals and expectations and, if he had not known that Happy was at his apartment watching over Pepper, he would have not stayed this late or this long.

Last night, the _Baxter Building Think Tank_ had been broken into by an unknown thief, and Tony had no doubt that it had been Rhona again. He just knew that the girl was preparing her next attack against him and Pepper, and the thought of having his life turned upside down in an instant made him upset, scared and mad. The baby was due in about two months from today and Pepper was more vulnerable than ever before for it. If it were up to him, they would just lock themselves up inside their apartment until Rhona was taken care of.

Or until they grew old and died, whichever came first.

Sadly, that was not an option. He would not force her to a prison no different than the ones she had already suffered through when kidnapped. He just could not bring himself to do that to her, no matter how much safer it made him feel she was. It was an illusion, he knew anyway, since Rhona had already proven to be an adversary worthy of catching them by surprise.

The still cold wind that hit him on the roof was suddenly diverted by his armor attaching to his body. It was nearly midnight, and all he wanted to do right now was fly home, thank Happy for keeping an eye on Pepper and then hold his fiancée in his arms for the rest of the night. He had been so busy with these damn meetings he had been supposed to be avoiding but which had needed his personal attention as of late, that ever since their fathers had come to visit them during the middle of the month, he had hardly had any chance to spend time with her.

She had not once reproached him at all for being away from home so much in the past two weeks, sometimes even until the wee hours of the morning, while he made sure that everything was alright with their company and that nothing unexpected occurred while they both completely and slowly tuned out from the world during Pepper's official maternity leave. She understood that some things just needed to be handled by him personally, but that did not make him feel any less guilty for coming home after she had already gone to bed without him.

Even though he had prepared everything to run the company from home – or so he had thought, and even if he had asked Diane Tincher to sub for him for now, there were some situations he still needed to take care of himself and away from home (such as completing missions, for example). He had not set foot in the armory since he had upgraded the systems there after Rhona Erwin's murder attempt, and even though he did not have to go back there for anything, he still felt that it was overdue that he gave his lab a look-see.

Nevertheless, he could not make himself leave her if he did not have to; they had already been apart for too long. He knew that, once the baby arrived, their alone time would become nonexistent, so he had wanted to have as much private time with her as possible before then, and not even just for his sake but for hers as well. Being pregnant was getting to her, and she now slept more during the day than at night thanks to lower back pain and numbing legs.

The HUD on his screen told him he was seconds away from landing on the balcony of their apartment, so he sent the signal for the automatic locks to open up and for the home alarm to turn silent for now. If Pepper had managed to fall asleep, he did not want to wake her up with his arrival. If she was still awake, the sudden change in the alarm system would give her a heads up that he was on his way.

_I hope she's OK_, the inventor frowned. He had been texting her and Happy all day, and had even tried calling them both, but neither of them had responded as of yet. At first, he had thought that it was just a coincidence that they had not answered, that maybe he had called them while one or the other was eating, napping or even showering, so he had let it go. But then, he had worried that something had happened to her while he was gone. Yet, the fact remained that the alarm systems remained intact, her armor was not in use and there was no sign of an emergency taking place near or in their home, so he had forced himself to calm down and not be his paranoid self.

This moment, though, when his feet landed on the balcony and he walked inside to find a dark and silent home, his paranoia returned.

He shed his suit and took slow steps toward the living room, illuminating the area with his pod. He locked the balcony doors and reset the alarm via Extremis, and he almost tripped over the bag he and Pepper had prepared for using when they would have to rush to the hospital whenever the baby decided to arrive. If he had paid more attention to it, he would have noticed that it had already been partially used and it was missing some of the items Pepper had carefully placed inside.

Other than some randomly placed blankets that Pepper used when she fell asleep on the couch, the living room and dining area seemed alright to him. He then eyed the kitchen and found it odd that no dishes, pots or pans were scattered around the counter or the sink, and he attributed it to maybe Happy not letting the ginger try to cook anything or perhaps even Jarvis visiting to clean the kitchen as best as he could.

He continued his trek down the hall and, as he was about to open the door to their room, he heard the ginger's unmistakable moan coming from behind him – from the nursery room.

"_Oh, yes, that feels so good."_

Tony immediately frowned. His head recoiled as he slowly turned around in place to stare at the closed door of the nursery and then turned off the light of his pod.

"_I knew you'd like it, Pepper,"_ Happy's voice shocked the billionaire. _"I told you I could've given it to you a long time ago."_

"_Yes, I know,"_ Pepper said and Tony took a step toward the door of the room where his redhead was getting something from Happy that he was not sure he wanted her to get. _"I should've listened to you. I just didn't want Tony to find out about it and then feel bad and… Oh, yes! Oh, yes, right there!"_

_What the fuck?_ It was all Tony could ask himself as he took another step and put away his pod.

_"Faster or harder?" _he heard the jock ask.

_ "Ah, both?"_

_ "OK."_

_ "Ooh… yes… oh, Happy. You're so good! Better than Tony actually, but I can't expect him to be good at… oh, yes… uhm… everything. Right? I gotta cut him some… oh, oh, oh… Yes… ah…there… that's the spot!"_

Tony's eyes widened in shock. Before he could stop himself, he slammed opened the door, turned the lights on and yelled.

"What the hell is going on in here? GET OFF HER!"

Pepper hissed when her eyes were suddenly hit by the bright light and she covered her face with her hands. Happy immediately pulled his hands away from Pepper's back and frowned at the angry-looking inventor practically growling at him from the door. It took Tony a brief instant to take in what he had just walked into, but once he did, he felt like a jerk; an insecure, _distrusting_ jerk.

The first thing that caught his attention, was the fact that both Pepper and Happy were _completely_ clothed, which was something he had not expected to be the case based on what he had just overheard them say. The second thing that he noticed, was that Pepper was lying on her left side on a massage table near the door and that, had she been just a few inches closer to the exit, he would have surely hit her or at least flipped her and the table over with the strength he used to open the door in his angry bout.

The third thing he realized, was that the candles and incense that Pepper used when she took long baths to ease her pains had been lighting the previously dark room, and that not only were Happy and Pepper not doing what he had thought they had been doing behind his back, but that they were now both looking at him with utterly confused looks.

"Hey, Tony! Is everything alright, man?" the jock asked, completely clueless and unaware of what Tony had just partially accused him of doing with his words and actions of a second ago. "You look pissed off. Was the meeting that bad?"

"Uhm," Tony gulped and licked his lips that had suddenly gone dry when he saw the moment that Pepper realized what Tony had thought of her and she had begun to glare at him. "Yeah, it, uhm, it blew. I… sorry I yelled. I'm still very, ahem… pissed off at something _very_ stupid that someone said and did," he added, his eyes glued to her narrowing ones as he did so.

"That sucks, dude!" Happy said and began putting away the massage items Tony was just now seeing for the first time. "Do you have to go back there again early tomorrow? Do you want me to stay the night?"

"Ah, no, Happy. Thanks," Tony responded and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand, becoming now extremely aware that Pepper was yet to say anything, and that her glare was getting worse and worse. "I'm done for a few weeks."

"Cool!" Happy said before he turned to Pepper. He grabbed her under her knees and by her underarms and then pulled her up from the massage table. "Here, Pep. Let me help you down."

The redhead nodded and thanked the jock. As soon as her feet were on the floor, she gave Happy a hug. "Thank you for that _PREGNANCY MASSAGE_, Happy," she said as she again glared accusingly at Tony. "You've been so helpful today."

"Oh, it's nothing, dudette! You know that's what I'm here for."

"Yes, I know. Thank you, again," she said, this time in a sweet voice, as she stared at the tall man. "Good night, Happy," she then added, stood on her tiptoes to give him a kiss on his cheek and then walked around the massage table, out of the nursery and made a beeline to the other room, not once sparing the nervous inventor a glance.

Tony followed her movements with his head and eyes, and when he heard the door to their room close and lock, he flinched and briefly closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he watched Happy as he folded the table and rested it against the wall inside the bathroom and then put out the incense and candles. The jock eyed the nursery room once more to make sure everything was out of the way and, once he was satisfied that he had cleaned up enough, he stared at Tony with a frown.

"Tony, we need to talk."

Tony nodded once, stared at the closed door of their room with a pained look and then walked down the hall and into the living room with Happy in tow after the jock turned off the lights in the nursery and closed its door. Once Happy reached the living room, he began putting away his belongings and Tony turned on the lights of the main area of the home.

As soon as Happy put on his backpack and was ready to go home, he looked down the hall to make sure that Pepper was still inside the room before his eyes landed on a dejected-looking Tony that was now moping on the couch. The jock walked over to the living area and sat in the only chair in the room and sighed.

"Tony, I had to take Pepper to the hospital today."

His words were enough for Tony to push aside his feelings of regret for now and his head snapped towards his friend. "Why? What happened? Why didn't you call me?"

"She didn't let me," he said. "She didn't want to scare you or bother you if it was nothing. She… she hasn't eaten anything all day either. She's been throwing up everything. And in one of those times she went to the bathroom, she, uhm… she began bleeding."

Tony's heart stopped. "From… from her mouth?"

Happy shook his head slowly and then looked down. "No," he whispered. "You may want to talk to the doctor tomorrow."

Tony swallowed hard. "Is the baby OK? Is she going to be OK?"

"Yes, I think," Happy said. "They didn't find anything wrong with either of them, but they also couldn't say why she was bleeding even if it wasn't much. But because they couldn't find what caused it…"

Happy did not have to finish his sentence. Tony understood what his friend was trying to tell him.

"You may have to redo the baby bag," Happy continued. "I took it with me when I rushed her to the emergency room and used some stuff from it. I'm sorry I didn't make it again. I've been trying to keep her busy and relaxed, so after remembering that I've been learning different types of massages at school, she finally let me give her a pregnancy one. She must have really needed it. She'd never let me do it before until now."

"Thank you, Happy," Tony said and his head hung. _I should've known something was wrong! No answer from either of them… the baby bag not in the nursery where we left it… and here I was thinking that Pepper… that she and Happy…_

Yup. A jerk. A big, fat, insecure, distrusting, dumbass jerk.

"I mean it: thank you, Happy," Tony patted Happy's shoulder as he stood up. "I… I'm sorry you had to do this alone. I… thank you, really. It… it means a lot."

"It's no problem, Tony," Happy shrugged and stood up from the chair. "But keep an eye on her, OK? She was very depressed after coming back from the hospital. She hasn't been feeling well at all, all day."

"I will," Tony said and swallowed hard. "I'm not going anywhere. It's… it's the end of the month. I'm done with work for a while."

"Good," Happy said with finality and began walking to the door. "But if you need me, just give me a call."

"I know," Tony said and forced a small smile on his face as he watched Happy open the exit door. "Thanks, again, man."

Happy gave Tony a hand salute that the inventor returned with a nod and, after the man disappeared behind the closed door, the genius locked the alarm system, turned the lights off and slept outside their room, on the floor, in the hall.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** I wonder what you have to say about this… Just curious :P

*Props to _pepperony4evah_ who suggested this idea ^_^


	8. Chapter 7

**A/N: **YAY! Hot pink toenails Tony was great! And, to quote _**SilverPedals1402 **_on the previous chapter: _"This whole chapter is a giant mood swing,"_ That's what I was aiming for because, aren't pregnant women just a giant, walking mood swing? Hehe!

**Guest Review Responses**

**pepperony4evah: Yup. Just as i said. There is someeething bout the baby. There are 3 possibilities will miscarriage 2. Baby's scott's and a mutant 's tony's and has extremis which also is type of a mutation. There's also the possibility of the alien conception. If any girl is loved by a man as much as pepper does, she sure is the luckiest girl in the world! Ah my feelings ... **Would you believe me if I said that Tony hasn't done the ultimate sacrifice for her just yet? Although, he won't be all there when he does it but…meh, just wait.

**Toni: Thanks for a very lite and humorous chapter. Well, except for the ending of course and the melon /strawberry /coconut /chili /mustard /banana/ sushi pie! That's just...No. Tony has some fixing to do ;)** You are very welcome! There will be a lot more laughter in The Fourth Year, and I hope you enjoy it, too.

**Nawww... So sweet! (Except for the last part) I hope the baby is okay! **Man, people are divided on this, huh? Some want the baby to die; some want it to live…who will win?

**shreya:- this chapter has increased their closeness.. and.. why I am sensing some danger in later chapters? I hope I am JUST sensing it and you are NOT introducing it(although i know you won't listen to pepperony fans..:P)..:P **Hey, hey, HEY! XD I _DO_ listen to Pepperony fans…I AM ONE…but…yeah…sometimes…the drama and angst…they're irresistible :P

**Me gustaria saber si el bebe es de Tony y no de Scott y que a Pepper le pasa eso ya que el bebe tiene extremis en su sangre y estaria bueno que pepper se volviera una superhumana bionica con poderes o una mutante con poderes sobrenaturales.** Why does everyone think the baby could be Tony's? How would that even work? Theories, anyone? Now, if you want to see a Pepper with superpowers and you follow the Iron Man movies, go read my other stories: _Shadows of the Past_ and then _Man in a Can_. Pepper kicks ass there!

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 7: February<strong>

The next morning, and with the start of the new month, Tony found himself getting up earlier than usual. His sleep had been neither restful nor comfortable on the floor of the hall and Pepper was yet to leave their room. He honestly expected her not to speak to him at all after the misunderstanding he had been involved with the night before, but he at least wanted to make sure that she was otherwise alright. His conversation with the jock before he had left for the night had disturbed him, and he now felt even more hesitant to leave the ginger by herself.

He stood up from the floor and pressed his ear against the door, hoping to hear some type of indication that she was already awake. When he heard nothing at all, he sighed and walked towards the living room. He picked up the blankets from the chairs, neatly folded them and then put them on the back of the couch. He then grabbed the baby bag that he had hit last night on his way inside and took it with him back to the nursery. It only took him about five minutes to replace the items that had been used, and he then placed the bag back where it was supposed to be until it was to be used: on the ground, against the wall, to the left of the entrance of the nursery.

His eyes then stared up and around the room, and after seeing the massage tools still present in the bedroom, his guilt grew exponentially. He could not believe that he had thought that Pepper would cheat on him, let alone with Happy, and in their own home. That was not something she would do to him, even if she were to be pissed off at something he did. It was true that they both tended to overreact when upset, but on all those occasions they had managed to hurt each other, cheating had not been an option they had pursued.

If she had not cheated on him when they dated, why would she do so when engaged? Why did the possibility ever occur to him in the first place? If anything, he would be the first one to screw up and cheat if it came to it, since he had been the first one to use Maya's body to try to forget about the redhead. Then again, for all technical purposes, they had _both_ cheated on Scott and Maya several times, for a long time.

_Either way,_ _I fucked up. BIG TIME._

Tony shook his head in self-disapproval of his actions, exited the nursery with a sigh, and closed the door behind him. He then stood in front of the door to their room for a minute and waited to hear any noise. When nothing happened again, his hand grabbed the doorknob and he tried to turn it only to find it was still locked.

"Pepper?" he rested his forehead against the door, closed his eyes and knocked. "Pepper, please open up. Let me in, please."

He gave her a minute to say or do anything, but when it continued to be just him and silence, he sighed and knocked again.

"Pep, please, _please_ let me in. I'm sorry about last night. I... let me apologize to you. Please."

He again waited, and again nothing happened.

"Pepper? Pepper, seriously open up. I-I don't want to force my way inside, but I will if you don't open the door. We need to talk, alright? I need to tell you I'm sorry for doubting you. I… I have no excuse, I know. But that doesn't mean I'm not sorry for what I thought about you. That doesn't mean I don't feel like crap about it. I should've known better. I…" he groaned and hit his forehead against the door a few times. "Honey, I'm really sorry. I'm really, _really_ sorry. I just… I just want to…"

His words were suddenly interrupted when he heard a loud crash, the sound of glass breaking, a thud coming from inside the room and his heart almost stopped.

"PEPPER!" he wiggled the doorknob with his right hand and repeatedly slammed his left fist against the door. "Pepper, what happened?"

_"TONNYY!"_

Following her cry for help, he heard her struggle inside against something that sounded as if it was hitting everything inside their room. When she soon thereafter yelled that she could not reach the door, he decided that he had had enough. He extended his right arm toward the hall and living room, where his suit lay, and in an instant his right hand was covered by the gauntlet. He aimed it at the doorknob, blasted it while the rest of his suit attached itself to him, pushed the door open and then gasped at what he saw.

"What the hell?"

Crows. Black, red-eyed crows. They were everywhere. On the bed, on the floor, flying left and right, pecking at the furniture and slamming themselves against the ceiling and walls.

Crows.

"Pepper, where are you?" Iron Man called as he walked inside the room only to be attacked by the army of crows. He flailed his arms left and right to scare and push away the birds, but the animals seemed to not care that a man in a suit of armor was hitting them with deadly force. "Pepper!"

"I'm in here!" she yelled from the closet and he immediately ran up to her, stomping and hitting birds on his way to her. He opened the closet doors to see the redhead curled up in a ball, under the clothes she had tripped over on her way inside the closet, the only protection she could find on short-notice after the window had broken to let the flock in. Tony bent down to grab her and then shook his head at her when he saw the bleeding scratch marks on her arms.

"Are you OK?" he asked her after he retracted his helmet and used his body to keep the animals from getting to her. He could hear them behind him, fluttering and smashing themselves against everything in their room as if they were rabid. He had heard of animals suddenly attacking people for no apparent reason, but he was not aware of any attack of this sort that included breaking into someone's home with the sole purpose of scaring the crap out of his pregnant fiancée.

"Pepper, say something!"

"I… I'm-m-m OK," she struggled with her words. When she looked up at the inventor, he noticed that her eyes and face were red and puffy; she had been crying her eyes out for a while now, probably before the birds had come in, and most likely due to what had happened last night. "I'm alright. Just… get them or me out of here. They… they attacked me."

"Where's your pod?"

"Drawer."

Tony frowned. He had hoped that she had had her pod with her so that she could use the micro-shield she had adapted to her phone to protect herself, but it being on the other side of the room had shot down that option in a flash.

Another option was to bring over her suit to her, but he feared the extra movement would just further agitate the animals into coming inside the closet he was barely able to keep free of the intruders. His final option, which had just come to him right now, seemed like the only thing he could do for her at the moment. He was going to go for it before the crows began redirecting their attention from the room in general to where they lay inside the closet.

He ran an armored hand down her damp cheek and then kissed her forehead. Pepper did not stare at him again and instead looked to the side, trying her best to avoid his lips from further traveling down her face. Tony instantly recognized the signs that she was still upset at him, and his frown deepened in regret.

"I know it's not the time, but I'm sorry. I'm very sorry, Pep."

"I know," she said but still refused to stare at him and more tears began forming in her eyes. "But, like you said: now is not the time."

Tony swallowed hard and gave her a curt nod before he closed his helmet. He helped her stand up as much as she could under the racks of clothes and activated the shield to protect them both. He then turned in place, grabbed her right hand in his and secured her behind him.

"Stay close," he told her and she complied.

They both began taking small steps out of the closet and into the room, and the crows immediately started to slam themselves against the shield. Neither of them was worried that the shield would give under the strain of crazy birds hitting it with everything they had, but the sight itself was horrifying.

Now that they took a better look at them, they both realized that these were not normal crows. The animals were slightly larger and bulkier than they should have been, their red eyes were so large they practically bulged out of their sockets, and if they did not know any better, they would have sworn they were snarling at them, as if they _knew_ who they were. Their bouts against the shield were vicious, and when the birds began to attack the back of the shield more than the front, Tony realized that these animals had not just accidentally crashed into their apartment; they had been_ sent_ here.

They had been sent here to attack _her_.

_Rhona_, the genius thought and his grip on the redhead tightened. The ginger, shortly after he had, also put two-and-two together when the flock began gathering themselves behind her and pecked at the shield, pushing her to press herself against the armor even though she knew they would never penetrate the force field.

"Tony," she whispered. "They… they're after me."

"I know," he gulped. "I know."

He stared left and right as they stood in the middle of their room, taking in everything around him to come up with an action plan. Leaving was not an option since the flock would just follow them to wherever they went and, if it was not just him in the suit, the idea would have been a good one. Staying put and hoping they left was also not an option, as it appeared to him that these animals had nowhere else to go and nothing else to do but terrorize the girl. Using his weapons against them would also not help, as it would require him to lower the shield, which he definitely could not do as it would leave Pepper unprotected, and a brief second was all that was needed for one of the hundreds of talons or beaks around them to gauge an eye out.

This left him with only one choice, and while it would leave him out of the picture for a few hours, he felt that there was nothing else either of them could do at the moment. He turned around to face Pepper, retracted his faceplate and grabbed her face in his armored hands.

"Listen to me, Pep. I have a plan."

"What is it?"

"We're going to use the sonic blasters and knock them unconscious."

"OK," she said with a slight nod. "But, that means I'm going to be knocked out, too."

"No," he shook his head. "I'm going to put the suit on you and then you're going to use the sonic blasters."

"What? But… but what about you? They're going to knock you out for hours! And the headache afterwards…"

"I know. But _I'd_ rather be unconscious than risk hurting the baby. Happy, he-he told me what happened. I don't know what effect the sonic blaster could have on him, so we better not take the risk."

Pepper's eyes landed on her bump and exhaled in immediate defeat. Happy was not supposed to tell Tony what had happened yesterday but she figured that, at this point, it did not matter. They had more important things to worry about at the moment, like the fact that it was looking very likely that Team Iron Man was going to become extinct after being taken down by fucking birds.

"OK," she finally said. "But as soon as they're out for the count, I'm taking us to the armory."

"What? No. I want you to run out of here and find Happy and…"

"NO!" she grabbed onto his forearms. "I'm not going to leave you here with these… _things_… they're not normal, Tony. They… they look rigged and… are probably carrying mini-lasers in their eyes or disease or something and… and…"

"Pepper…"

"No," she said with a shake of the head. "You're going to be knocked out, anyway. You won't be able to stop me. I'm just telling you what I'm going to do. I'm not asking you for permission."

Tony rolled his eyes in exasperation and groaned. "What if more come?"

"Then we'll be safer at the armory. I doubt they can fly at Mach 3 speeds, anyway. They'll never catch up with us."

Tony closed his eyes and hung his head in resignation. "Pepper, why don't you understand that–"

"I do understand," she told him. "And I don't plan on either of us dying before we say _I do_."

Tony chuckled bitterly but finally nodded. She was right and he knew it. Even if he ordered her to leave him here, she would do whatever she wanted to do or whatever she thought was best even if it went against what he wanted her to do. This was one of the reasons why he was marrying her, anyway; her inability and unwillingness to take crap from anyone, especially from him, so he was not one to talk about how her stubbornness irked him in situations like these when it also turned him on.

"Fine. But this conversation is not over."

"And neither is the one from last night," she added with a glare and he cringed. He then stole a last glance at her, gave her a small smile and closed the faceplate. He immediately overrode protocol 7871 and prepared to transfer the suit onto her. Seconds later, he was in the air, unconscious, as Pepper rode inside the Iron Man suit and carried him and the Rescue backpack toward the lab faster than the new wave of incoming crows could fly behind them.

xxxXXXxxx

"So much for our upgraded security systems, huh?" Rescue asked as she and Iron Man landed on the balcony of their apartment, twenty-four hours after the bird attack. Even though Tony had not wanted her to come with him back to the scene of the crime, she again had not listened, and after realizing she was probably better off with him than alone at the temple, he had ended up giving in and had brought her with him back to the apartment.

"Well, I didn't really account for psycho birds, Pepper," he replied and led the way inside the apartment through the broken balcony doors.

Their suits' offensive systems were up and ready to attack at the slightest provocation even though an initial scan of the apartment had shown there was no one else there but them. They had notified the manager of the complex about the incident – or the part of it that would not freak him out – and no one had been allowed to be up there until the team of heroes cleared it and deemed it safe for return.

The boots of their suits of armor further crunched down the shards of glass beneath their feet, and with every step they took inside their dwelling, the reality of the miserable state of their cozy apartment hit them harder than one of the Hulk's punches. This had not only been an attack against the ginger but it had also been an invasion of their home; the one place that Tony had thought they would be safe in.

"Oh, my gosh, Tony," she whimpered as her eyes filled with tears of sadness and anger while she perused their surroundings. The entire place was trashed, the furniture was broken and, with it, some of their prized possessions were scattered in pieces all over the floor. It was not as if they could not immediately supplant all of the items in the apartment overnight, but the personal value of some of the objects that had been damaged made them irreplaceable.

The blankets that Tony had given her for Christmas were either torn in two or had large holes in them. The key holder that Jarvis had given them was broken beyond reasonable repair. The deeper they got into the apartment, the worse the damage got. Anything and everything that had had some or had been made of glass was broken, including picture frames with photographs of them.

"Did someone else break in when we were gone?" Pepper asked, her trembling voice telling the inventor she was trying not to cry. "Who did this? _Why_ did they do this?"

"I don't know, Pep. I have no clue," he frowned, his soul also pained at seeing the mess their apartment had become. This was the first place in a long time, other than the temple, that he had learned to call his own. Seeing it in ruins made him feel all kinds of emotions that he knew he had to keep to himself for now if he wanted to find out what had occurred.

"Do you think it was the birds? This… birds can't do all this damage, can they?"

"Well," he pushed opened the door to their room. "Those weren't ordinary birds, there were hundreds of them, and… they're _gone_?"

"What?" she looked over his shoulder. "That's impossible! Even the dead ones?"

"Yeah. Not even feathers left."

Both armored heroes walked inside their bedroom to see that it was in no better condition than the rest of the home. Just as it was the case out in the hall and main living area, everything that had been made out of glass was destroyed. The blankets, pillows and even the mattress had been ripped apart, and most of their clothes had been shredded. Their drawers and their contents were shed to pieces all over the floor, and even her pod and Tony's laptop were fucked up beyond recognition. The bathroom was also unusable; its tiled floor was littered with pieces of glass from the broken mirror, and neither of them bothered to actually walk inside it to further assess the damage of the facilities.

Pepper closed her eyes and looked away. This was their home, their only sanctuary, and it had been reduced to nothing but a pile of trash on top of a pile of more trash. Now it was certain to them that this had not been a random attack of nature; this had been an actual attempt at ridding the world of them – an attempt at collecting the bounty that was on their heads. Rhona had not been bluffing; someone truly wanted them dead.

"Let's just get whatever we can find that we may need in the next few days and go back to the armory for now. We can come back later with help to clean up and do some recon."

"OK," she said with a barely controlled sniffle that broke his heart but that he had to overlook if he wanted them out of the place ASAP. He was not sure what else lurked in the shadows, or if they were being watched at the moment, but they had had to come back to assess the damage. This could have only happened at a worse time if it had been during the middle of Pepper going into labor, but there was no sense in crying over it now. All they could do at the moment was stay away from the apartment for a few days, clear their heads and then tackle the new mission with renewed energy.

She watched him walk away from her and down the hall and, for a moment, all she wanted to do was to collapse onto the floor while he was not looking. She was tired, she was hungry and she was in shock. She knew that he was trying to be strong for the both of them, and she was glad that he was partially succeeding at it, because she was about to breakdown. Years of rebuilding the life that had been taken away from her when Whitney took her had been undone in seconds. She now felt defenseless, out in the open like a sitting duck, while Rhona or whoever had sent this attack towards them laughed at their misery.

They had not even had a chance to talk about the misunderstanding of two nights ago, but after seeing this chaos and after monitoring Tony's vitals for a long time as he had recovered from the sonic blast he took to protect her, the argument seemed too petty and meaningless for her at this point. So what if he had thought her possible of cheating on him, even if for just a second? Who cared if he had doubted her for a mere moment? His anger was clearly gone and his regret was painfully obvious to her in the way he had been staring at her after he had woken up. He knew that he had made a mistake, and that was all that mattered in the end. She knew he would never do it again, and she would also make sure not to do or say anything that could be taken as something else entirely.

After taking a deep breath to compose herself, the redhead slowly walked over to the nursery's door, pushed it open and had to keep herself from weeping when she saw the devastation of the room they had both spent many hours sprucing up for the baby. Everything inside of it was broken and wasted; all the furniture, the walls, the window, the clothes they had already bought, and some of the toys that Tony had made with his own two hands – _everything_ was destroyed. Not even her scrapbooks had been unaffected by the rage of whoever or whatever had caused this to their home.

With glistening eyes and tears trailing down her cheeks, she began to collect from the floor the parts of her ruined scrapbooks and made a neat pile of whatever she could still use of them. Some of the pictures were damaged, but she could always reprint those later. She was more concerned about the mementos that she had saved of the baby and of them, especially the ones that she could not find a replacement for; such as the first rose Tony had ever given her and that now could not even be categorized as mulch.

_It had been three days since she had moved back to the apartment and she was still getting used to being here again. Her room, while it had been left untouched the entire time she had been gone, felt strange to her. Maybe, it was the fact that Maya had lived here for a year, that she had been using the same items that she was now using again and that she had used in the past. Maybe, it was the fact that she had left an engaged woman and had returned single and pregnant. Whatever it was, she was having a difficult time getting reacquainted with the scenery._

_ Perhaps, it was just the fact that she had been expecting for Tony to retract his offer of moving in with him again when he realized what he had signed up for and asked her to leave. It could also be that she had not wanted to get used to being here if there was a chance she would not be staying long, or maybe she was just afraid of getting attached to the place again, seeing that, as soon as she developed an attachment to something or someone, they tended to leave her._

_ She opened her eyes again after a long time of just enjoying the bath she was taking, and now that the water was getting cold, she knew it was time to get out. She unscrewed the cap of the tub and, as the water began draining, she stood up, turned on the shower to mid-heat and rinsed her body of the soap. She then quickly washed her hair, shut off the water, grabbed a towel, wrapped it around her body and exited the shower._

_ A minute later, she put on her bathrobe, and as she was walking out of the bathroom while she toweled her hair dry, she found something on her nightstand that had not been there when she had gone inside the bathroom: a thin, glass vase with a single red rose inside._

_ "What's this about?" she closed the distance between her and the flower. She picked it up from the stem and smelled it – it was still fresh – and a smile appeared on her face. She then replaced the rose inside its vase, noticed a small envelope was next to it on the nightstand, and she immediately grabbed it, opened it and took out the only card inside._

_ There were only three words written on it, and there was no sender signature on it, but she knew only one person could have given her this. She smiled again as she re-read the simple message, and then put it back inside the envelope she would cherish for days to come._

_ WELCOME HOME, PEP_, the card had said – the same card that was now torn to pieces before her.

"Here's a box, Pepper," she heard Tony say from behind her while he stood by the door of the nursery, suit removed. She stood up from the floor and turned around to face him. Seeing that he felt it was safe enough for them to remove the armors, she retracted her suit into its backpack form and tossed the backpack to the side. She then walked over to him, eyes glued to the ground, and as she was about to grab the box he was offering her and she saw some of the items already inside (her pinwheel necklace, a few pictures of them together, and the jewelry box Gene had given her) she ended up covering her mouth with her right hand and began crying instead.

"Oh, Pep!"

He placed the box on the floor and hugged her as she cried. He had not heard her cry this hard in a long time, and that had been when she had found out that her birth mother was dead. She continued to sob without shame for a while longer, but when she then felt Tony's muscles clench up underneath her touch and then heard him growl in anger, she forced herself to pull her head back and stare at him.

She gazed up at him and at his full-of-hatred face for a few seconds, waiting for him to do or say anything else, but when he just continued to stare at something behind her and he then pressed her closer to him, she just knew she had to look over her shoulder to find out what had him looking as if he was ready to kill someone.

She did so slowly, so as to not give him a chance to stop her move, and when her eyes landed on the same object she knew he had spotted seconds ago, her eyes widened in surprise. She then looked away from it and pressed her face against his chest. Tony tightened his grip on her and kept her from looking back at it again by embracing her even closer to him. He then lowered his head to rest it on her right shoulder, kissed the side of her head and whispered to her the only thing he knew mattered right now even though it was already obvious to the redhead that he would do as such.

"I won't let them, Pepper. I _swear_ to you: I won't. Let them."

Pepper clenched her eyes and jaw shut to keep another whimper from coming out. When her body began shivering, it was enough for Tony to know that she was as terrified as he was.

There before them, written in red letters on the tiny mattress that had once been inside the crib and was now on the floor, was the phrase: KILL IT OR WE WILL.

xxxXXXxxx

The view from the _Stark Solutions_ penthouse was not as beautiful or as breathtaking as the one their former apartment by the Hudson had but, for the past week, the city lights and nearby skyscrapers had been the only things that the inventor and the ginger had been able to see other than their computer screens. After finding out that someone out there wanted the baby dead, Tony and Pepper had spent a week living at the Makluan Temple, and the past week at the _Stark Solutions_ penthouse – which was now their new permanent home.

It was no walk in the park, especially since Pepper was banned from leaving the building without a full crew of bodyguards surrounding her. But for once, the redhead was going to let Tony strap an ankle bracelet onto her if he so wanted to. Then again, she still had the subcutaneous tracker embedded in her arm – she had never asked him to remove it and he had never offered – and she was certain that perhaps it was a good thing that he could find her location in the blink of an Extremis eye.

Throughout that week at the Temple, Pepper had been hard at work doing what she did best while being watched over by an arsenal of active Iron Man suits and Happy. Tony, Virgil and Howard had cleaned up the apartment and had searched for clues. There had not been that many, in fact, as no samples of the birds that had attacked them had been left behind. In truth, if it was not for the video surveillance Tony had installed in the apartment, no one would have believed them that crows had attacked their home.

Her research efforts had gone as far as contacting Scott for help. She had not wanted to worry him with the situation, since he was too far away from them to be able to do anything about it without having to move out of the school and back to the city, but she had been so frustrated that she had not been able to find anything useful for them to start their investigation that she had asked him if he had ever accidentally pissed off a family of crows by using them as target practice for his eyes. As ridiculous as her question to him had sounded, Scott had paused for an instant and had considered her words. He had not so much dwelled on the silliness of the query, but the implication that someone might want to harm him by hurting her or the baby, and it had been then that Scott had finally understood what Tony had been trying to do when he had pushed Pepper away from him.

"_I honestly can't think of anyone, Pepper," _Scott had told her. _"Besides, no one else knows for sure that the baby is mine. They're just rumors. Half the people out there are convinced that the baby is really Tony's. Unless we make the official statement, they could be trying to get even with Tony and not me. I'll still do some research on my end and I will let you know what I find. But, if something else happens or if you don't feel safe there anymore, just… just let me know, alight? I'll ask Professor Xavier to let you move over here for the time being if it comes to it. I know… I know that you and Tony are now… well…" _he had sighed on screen._ "But I think he'd understand the benefits of keeping you hidden until the baby is born."_

That idea had not actually crossed her mind until he had brought it up. Would she and the baby be safer hiding at the _Gifted Youngsters School_ than being under Iron Man's watch? Would she even really consider locking herself away from Tony and everyone else she loved for the sake of keeping the baby safe? What were her options for hiding, really, when a person could command nature the way they had done so two weeks ago to send a flock of angry crows crashing into their home? Would that not mean that whoever was after them could be a mutant or someone so powerful that it did not matter where she hid?

All those questions had haunted her for days and nights, and had pushed her to now do what she was currently doing at her computer: exploring adoption agencies in the area even though she had not actually made a phone call to any of them; even though she had not been brave enough to bring up the possibility with Scott just yet.

Would her baby be safer as the son of some random couple on the West Coast, or in some other far away country, than being recognized as the child of Rescue and Cyclops? Could an old couple living on a farm in Kansas provide better shelter to her baby boy than the Hulk Buster armor could? If she played her cards right, this could very much be the case since hardly anyone would think of targeting a normal family's kid, but would not hesitate to abduct the potential heir to _Stark Solutions_, if Tony ended up adopting her son.

The real question was, though: would she be able to give up her baby and resign herself to not see him grow up and call her mom? Was that not all that she had gotten herself ready for in the last eight months? Had that not been the center of her universe since she had found out she was with child? Granted, she _had _freaked out about it for a while, but she was positive that every other woman out there who got pregnant for the first time had had that moment of terror envelop them at some point, but she had long ago gotten over that fear.

_But now_, she thought as her eyes landed on her now-enormous stomach and she rubbed it with her right hand. _Now I know him, and I love him, and someone wants to take him away from me._

Would it be easier to give him up as her own choice than to have someone snatch him away when she was not ready for it? How long had her mother considered the idea of giving her up for adoption before she had finally taken the dreaded step? Would she end up dying of sadness too, or would she put a bullet in her head as well? The example was there, and even though it was not the best, the path had already been carved for her.

She closed her eyes and covered them with her left hand. As she was about to break down crying again, she felt a hand rest on her left shoulder and heard the voice of her worried fiancé coming from behind her, which only served to remind her that she was not the only one losing sleep over the situation.

"Come to bed, Pep. It's time to sleep. It's almost midnight."

She removed her hand from her eyes and opened them up just in time to hear Tony gasp loudly behind her when his eyes landed on the computer screen. Her right hand flew to the computer mouse to try to close the browser windows even though she knew it was too late, but as she had already expected, Tony was faster than her and he stopped her from hiding the evidence of her thoughts.

"Pepper? Are you… are you serious?"

The ginger did not dare to look back at him but felt his head hover over her right shoulder while he read the information on the monitor.

"Please tell me you haven't called anyone about it! Please tell me you haven't started the process! You can't be seriously considering this!"

"Why not?" she asked dejectedly, slightly taken aback and partially upset that the idea sounded so preposterous to him. "It's an option, right?"

"No, it's not," he replied in a soft voice before he pulled over a chair to sit next to her and forced her to face him. "At least not an option that I'm going to let you pursue."

Pepper pursed her lips, exhaled deeply through her nose and narrowed her eyes at him.

"You? _Not_ let _me_ pursue? Tony, you have NO say in this."

"Yes. I do."

"No, you don't," she spat and chuckled bitterly. "_I_ have a say in it and _Scott_ has a say in it, but you don't: it's not your baby."

As soon as the words left her mouth, she wanted to take them back. But she knew it was impossible to do so. How dared she say to him that this child was not his even when _he_ had been there for her and for the baby every step of the way, more than Scott had so far? How dared she throw this in his face when he had been working his butt off for the past few weeks to protect her son? How could she let her desperation get the best of her and rub it in his face that this child he was willing to raise with her was not his and imply that his opinion did not matter to her?

How dared she be so ungrateful?

Whatever retort that Tony had had ready for her, died on his lips and his head hung. He rolled his chair a few feet away from hers, rested his elbows on his knees and gulped. Pepper shook her head and closed her eyes, the weight of the world – the universe, again pressing against her shoulders and back.

"Tony," she began. "I'm sorry. I-I didn't mean to–"

"But you're right," he interrupted her but did not stare at her. "He's not my kid. He's just the kid of my fiancée. Of the woman I love and want to spend my life with, and of some guy she used to date for a while. Although, I thought that'd be enough to call him mine. But… I guess… I guess it's not. At least not for you, it's not."

Pepper's eyes filled with tears again, which then began falling down her cheeks when he exhaled bitterly, stood up from the chair he had been sitting in, ran a hand down his mane in frustration, and began walking away from her and toward their room. She was immediately on her feet, sped to catch up with him and stood in his way with arms wide open. His face turned to his left and he glued his eyes to the large glass wall of the penthouse that allowed seeing the bright city lights. His arms were to his sides, hands and jaw clenched and shaking, and he could hear his loud, ragged breaths in the painful silence of the living room.

He was mad, upset, pissed off – _fuming_. He would have preferred it if she had just stabbed him in the chest with an old corroded knife, pulled out his fingernails with a pair of pliers, gauged his eyes out with toothpicks, and had given him cyanide to drink with his dinner. It would have been that much _less _painful for him – it would have at least killed him faster than her words.

He could have easily gone around her and kept walking until he reached their room and locked the door behind him – just as she had done to him a few weeks ago. Or he could have easily ran toward the balcony of their building and jumped off it as he called on his armor and disabled hers, but something was keeping him frozen in place; something was keeping him from walking out on her this very moment – and he knew what that something was.

"_I know that!" Tony shouted, by this time already fed up with being told the same thing over and over again. "I know that it's not a puppy or a bird or a cat that I can return to the store or to the pound when I get tired of it. It's going to be another human being that we'll have to take into account for any decisions we make. I __**get**__ that, alright?"_

"_I don't think you do!" Roberta's hands rested on her hips. "It's hard enough when it's your own baby. What will stop you from one day thinking that it's not worth it to raise and take care of a child that's not yours? What will stop you from calling it quits on Pepper one day when she needs you the most and you realize that you carry no actual responsibility for this baby?"_

_Tony closed his eyes and shook his head. He then stared away from the angry-looking attorney as a memory returned to him. Tony knew that Glenda Barnes' baby was not her former fiancé's and that the man was aware of that fact as well. However, said detail had not stopped them from keeping the baby and from getting married, just as they had already planned on doing – both Tony and Pepper had received the invitation to the wedding, but neither of them had attended and had just sent gifts. The inventor also recognized why Glenda's now-husband had accepted a baby that was not his. It was the same reason why Tony wanted and planned to accept and take care of Scott's baby, as if it were his own._

"_Roberta," Tony began and sighed. "You… you already__** know**__ what will stop me from doing that to Pepper. From walking away from her and the baby. It's… it's the same reason that tells me that I should be there for her. It's the same reason why I WANT to be there for her. For them."_

_Roberta sighed in resignation and then placed a hand on Tony's left shoulder as he was still staring at something in the beyond. _

"_How long would that be strong enough to make you stay?"_

"_As long as she wants me around," he said without missing a beat, his eyes never leaving the horizon. "And probably even after that, too."_

"It's not easy, Tony," her soft voice pulled him out of his thoughts and she rested her palms on his chest. "It's not easy to make this decision and I don't want you to be a part of it because I don't want you to live with the burden of it. It's not because you don't have a right or a say. You… you do, but… it's better this way. It's better if the baby reproaches only me for giving him up and not you… or Scott."

The last part of her sentence made him frown even deeper, but it also helped him finally face her. He stared at her eyes, red, glistening and painfully swollen, and he sighed.

"Are you not going to tell him? Scott? Is he not going to know what you plan to do?"

She gulped and shook her head lightly. "Probably not."

"Why? He… he should know, Pepper. It's his kid. He should know more than I do."

"I know but, if _you_ are reacting like this to it… he… he'd flip out. He won't let me do it. He won't let me give him up."

"Because you shouldn't," he said and grabbed her hands. "You shouldn't give him up. We need to fight it, Pepper. We need to fight whatever it is that's screwing with us now. We can't give in. We can't give up. We can't live in fear all of our lives."

"But, Tony–"

"No," he began. "What if you give him up and then we have a kid of our own? Are you going to give him or her up, too? Are you also going to hide a baby – _MY_ baby, from me to keep it safe? When is it going to stop? Are we really going to let them win?"

Pepper closed her eyes briefly and, when she opened them again, his face was inches from hers. He pressed a soft kiss to her lips, her knuckles and then spoke again.

"Do you really want to give him up? Is that really what you want?"

"No," she choked and shook her head. "No, I don't."

"Then you don't have to," he told her firmly. "I'll see to that, Pepper. I promised you – I _swore _to you, that I wouldn't let anything happen to him, and I _will _do anything I can to protect you and him. This baby is staying with us whether whoever sent those birds to kill him wants it or not. They're just going to have to kiss my iron ass if they think they can convince me otherwise. The SI board couldn't stop me. Stane and Hammer couldn't stop me. S.H.I.E.L.D. couldn't stop me and the fucking Makluan couldn't stop me either. Whoever these assholes are, I want to see them try – no, I _dare_ them to try to hurt you or the baby. I will kill them, Pepper. I _will_ kill them when the time comes. Them and anyone else who tries to take you away. **I'm not taking any chances**."

Pepper closed her eyes again and threw her arms around his shoulders. She loathed hearing him talk like this – so full of hate and thirsty for vengeance, but he really could not help it at this point. She was certain that some of that same anger and violent tendencies he felt were embedded in her by now, too. How could anyone not expect it after everything they had survived? How could anyone not develop a sense of extreme self-defense when sometimes it appeared as if everything and everyone was out to get you?

Tony embraced her by her waist and held her against his chest while she calmed her nerves, his mind also lost in his own fears and doubts. She was four weeks away from her due date. With it, came the pressure of keeping them alive long enough for her to give birth. He knew that their most vulnerable time would be from now on until a month after the baby was born. After Pepper recovered from labor, she would be back to her normal, non-hormonal, kickass self, and she would be able to put on the suit and fight by his side just as they had done so many times before. He was actually looking forward to it as they had not been physically going together on missions since she had quit being Rescue long ago and he reveled in having her with him when he fought.

In the meantime, however, the responsibility of keeping her safe fell on him and on everyone else that was willing and ready to fight for her. Even if they only had to be on extremely high alert for the next eight weeks, they were going to be the longest eight weeks of his life. His father was ready for it, though, and so was Virgil. Roberta, Happy and Jarvis were also on board, and even Scott, Gene and Rhodey were on standby, regardless of how far away they were. If it came down to an all-out battle with whomever this hidden enemy was, they were definitely going to wish they had never crossed Tony Stark. For the first time, in years, he had finally realized that he was not alone – that _they _were not alone, and that they would never be alone again.

Pepper pressed the side of her face against his and kissed his cheek. She could feel the tension building in him and in her, but this was just the way the show went for them. They fought for their lives one day, then the next they chilled at a spa or at the beach, and then they turned around and broke someone's neck. This was the life she had chosen to live when she had accepted his marriage proposal, and she would have not had it any other way. That did not mean, however, that it was not exhausting as hell.

"How can you do this, Tony?" she whispered to him. "How can you be so strong?"

Tony chuckled lightly, pulled his face away from her shoulder, stared at her eyes for a second and then kissed her lips hard and long. Pepper returned the kiss, and once they finally broke for air, he answered her question.

"I have you with me," he whispered and smiled. "That's how."

She closed her eyes, smiled as brightly as he and then kissed him again before he carried her to their room and made her his once more. It was Valentine's Day, anyway, so all their troubles could wait for tonight.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Alright, my Faithful Readers, the final stretch is here. One more chapter and the Epilogue and then… well… I have nothing for you. Stories 6, 7 and 8 are only in my head for now and in story outlines on word documents but not in actual chapters yet. There will be a break in between this story and _The Fourth Year_, but your hearts might need it anyway :)


	9. Chapter 8

**A/N: **OK, here's the final chapter of this story. I recommend you read it with the lights on and with a blanket and a teddy bear in hand.

**Guest Review Responses**

**pepperony4evah: Who could have sent the birds? I wonder. Why would anyone possibly want it dead? Could Scott himself have done it? Is he a bad guy pretending to be is the baby not Scott's? Why would anyone want it dead when she's this close to parturition? Why would anyone wanna tear tony's welcome card to pepper? Looks more like something a girl obsessed over tony would do. What about maya? What was that mission that someone assigned her to do? ...I'm gonna be spending couple of sleep deprived nights apparently **All your questions are good questions…but not all good questions have answers…yet…

**shreya:-ohh.. please don't say this..! I had actually made it a part of my routine to check up the updates of the story..:( :( i will be missing it... but then... its ok again since I am having my exams right now..:) by the way.. thanks a lot..:) and yaa... you surely listen to pepperony fans..:) **I surely do :D and I will prove it even more with the Epilogue of this story.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 8: March<strong>

Tony paced back and forth in the waiting room of the maternity ward as he waited to hear about Pepper's status. Now that her due date was approaching, they had ended up in the emergency room of his least favorite hospital about five times before this one, thinking that the baby was coming early. So far, however, they had all been false alarms. Scott had been present for the first two times – which had happened at the beginning of the month – but after that, and after a long consultation with her flabbergasted OB/GYN, Pepper had decided that he would be called only if necessary.

The stress was piling up on everyone as the big day became imminent, and every time they had left the _Stark Solutions_ penthouse to arrive at the hospital, it had been another chance for their silent enemy to get them. Tony slept with one eye opened at night, and when he was wide awake, he was constantly monitoring the police frequencies and news reports for any sign that an attack was in the making. The pressure was on, so much so that Happy had moved into the penthouse with them, just to make sure that there was enough help to go around if Tony was suddenly called to action.

So far, everything had been relatively calm, _if_ the horrible contractions Pepper was being a victim of almost every day, were not considered.

_At least she's no longer bleeding_, Tony rubbed his face with his hands. He had been waiting in here for three hours already, and he was _this _close to just barging inside Pepper's hospital room to find out what was taking them so long. After the third time they had been here this month, he had not been allowed in the room anymore because he could not contain his anxiety as, one too many times, he had started barking orders at everyone. But he knew that if he wanted to be there for the actual birth, he would have to start listening to the doctors and nurses when they told him to shut up and settle down.

_How can they all be so calm about it?_

Tony could not understand why it was only he who was pulling his hair out. Virgil, Roberta, Jarvis and even Howard had told Tony that close calls or false alarms at this point were commonplace, and if they considered how unusual her pregnancy had been until now, it would not be unexpected that Pepper would give birth at the rarest moment and without any real warning. _That_, he feared the most; that he would overlook the cautionary signs that the baby was coming, and that his fiancée would suddenly go into labor while he slept next to her.

"Still nothing?" he heard Happy ask as he walked inside the waiting room after returning from the bathroom and sat in a chair near the television.

"Nope," he shook his head. "Maybe it's for real this time."

"I hope so, poor Pepper needs a break," the jock said with a shake of the head and a loud sigh. "I don't understand why they don't just induce the labor. I think she's suffered enough. The cramps, the headaches, the back pain, the swollen feet, the nausea, the mood swings, the–"

"HAPPY!" Tony spat. "That's… that's enough. I get it, she's in pain… but… but there's nothing I can do about it. I can't help her. I can't do SHIT for her! So, please… _please_ don't remind me of that!"

"Well," Happy shrugged. "You could, I don't know, CHILL THE FUCK OUT?" he said and finished with his arms opening wide and above his head.

Tony was taken aback by the man's words and posture when he stood up and towered over the inventor. The genius was not afraid of Happy, even if he was bulkier than he was – he still had Extremis in him, anyway – but the sole fact that the always happy, well, Happy, had just yelled at him was enough to startle him.

"What the hell do you mean, Happy?"

"What do you mean 'what do I mean'?" Happy rolled his eyes. "Dude, you gotta chillax! You're so stressed about everything that you're stressing Pepper out even more! She's got enough to worry about already to also be watching over your worrisome ass!"

"Wah?" Tony's eyes widened. "I-I… Pepper, she… she doesn't know that I… that I…"

"That you, what?" Happy asked. "That you're sneaking out at night and patrolling the building and everything within a five-mile radius of it? That you're taking energy drinks to stay awake during the day to glue your eyes to the news channels? That you haven't had a decent meal in weeks even though Jarvis has been stopping by to feed you two? That you, right now, are listening to the fucking police reports for signs of danger?" he finished by aggressively pulling the earpiece from Tony's right ear, earning him a whine from the billionaire.

"Ow! Watch it!" Tony spat and rubbed his ear. "And give me back my earpiece! I need that!"

"No, you don't!" Happy retorted, put away the earpiece in his jeans' pocket and pointed a finger at the shorter boy. "What you need is to relax and not give Pepper anything else to bite her nails for!"

"Happy, I…" Tony began but knew he could not deny what he was being accused of. He could only sigh and look down in disgrace. He had really been trying to keep his actions from being seen by Pepper, but the closer she got to giving birth, the more nervous he became. He could not help it that the red letters written on what would have been the mattress of the baby still haunted his dreams. He could not help it that Pepper had had to ask him several times to stop hugging her so tightly at night when they went to bed and his feelings of dread overcame him.

What was he supposed to do?

"I know that but… how can I not worry?" Tony reasoned. "How can I not be paranoid every second of the day? Until the baby is born… until Pepper is checked out and she can put on a suit again, I-I can't help it. I love her, Happy. I _can't_ lose her. I don't _want_ to lose her."

Happy's annoyed face softened a little at seeing Tony looking so broken and dejected. He had seen the way Tony stared at Pepper when he thought that no one was observing them. He had witnessed the way he watched over her and all the weird things he did for her – like eating her pregnancy-induced meals, but not once had Happy heard the blue-eyed boy say aloud that he loved the redhead, or at least not when he was around. Yes: it was obvious that he did, everyone knew it even before he did himself, but there was something about hearing the billionaire say the words with so much emotion and pain that it took away some of the anger that the jock had been feeling towards the genius about how his attitude was affecting the ginger's already insane pregnancy.

"You won't," Happy said in a friendlier tone. "But you aren't helping matters any by having her stress about labor _and_ about you. It wouldn't surprise me if all these false alarms are just her body's way of coping with how troubled she is about you."

Tony's face of shock told Happy that this was news to him. The genius groaned, threw his head back in frustration and covered his face with his hands. He had not thought about this before and it made complete sense. In fact, now that he really analyzed the situation, every time Pepper had been feeling contractions had been when he had been caught by her doing something that he probably should have not been doing in the first place: sneaking out at night, hiding the food that Jarvis made for them and he had had no stomach to digest, punching and kicking the work tables in his office when a potential lead turned out to be nothing…

_It's my fault! __**I'm**__ doing this to her. __**I'm**__ making it harder on her when I'm supposed to be making it easier!_

"Fuck," Tony mumbled, straightened his head, opened his eyes and then his mouth went agape when he saw Pepper sitting in a wheelchair by the doorway – still pregnant – and Nurse Owen standing behind her, her hands on the handles of the chair.

"Pep!"

He ran up to her, kneeled before her, placed his hands on her knees and then kissed her large belly.

"I'm sorry, Pepper. I'm so sorry, babe."

Pepper sighed but did not say a thing. Her eyes were fluttering open and close, her head was bobbing from to side. She was extremely tired and still disoriented from the drugs they had given her to relax her after her pain refused to subside once they had confirmed there would be no baby today.

"Pepper? Honey, what… What's wrong with her?" Tony asked when he realized that she was not even aware that he was there and he tenderly stroked her face before he looked up at Nurse Owen with a frown. "What's happening to her?"

"She needs to sleep, Mr. Stark. I'm going to give you some very specific instructions that you _need_ to follow if you want her to calm down and not end up here again with another false alarm. Her body can't handle much more of this."

"I," he gulped in guilt, stared at a zoned-out Pepper and then nodded. "Yes, I will. Just tell me what to do."

xxxXXXxxx

"T-Tony?" her tone was groggy and her eyes were closed as she aimlessly swatted the air, searching for him. "Are you… are you still here?"

"Yes, Pep," he replied from behind her as they both lay in bed, dressed in nothing but their pajamas in the middle of the day. He had been following the doctor's advice that Nurse Owen had passed along to him, and the entire penthouse was dark as hell, regardless of what time of the day it was. No one – except Happy – was allowed up here without an escort, and he had given instructions to Bambi for how to handle _Stark Solutions_ emergencies without him until further notice.

"Where? I… I can't see you," she did not open her eyes, which she probably did not even know she had not opened in a long time.

"I'm right here, Pepper," he kissed her bare shoulder. "I haven't gone anywhere."

"Oh, OK," she mumbled, just as she had done so every time she had asked for him, even though he had been holding her for hours on end. "Did you... did you feed the Hulk?"

"Yup," he whispered to her and dug his face in her neck. "He's going to be alright for a few hours."

"Good," she said. "Don't forget to feed him again, OK? Otherwise he'll get angry. And we don't want him to be angry."

"No, we don't," he agreed with the silly arguments of hers that were being induced by the treatment Dr. Ross and Dr. Adler had prescribed for her. "Don't worry about it, babe. I'll take care of it. I'll take care of everything. You just relax, alright?"

"Mmkay," the redhead said and again fell asleep. She had been doing this for days now. It was driving him insane. She would wake up for a few minutes, talk nonsense to Tony – and sometimes did not even know it was him who was there with her – and she would then fall asleep again without notice. Sometimes, she slept for hours. Sometimes, only for a few minutes. And sometimes, only for a short second before she would again wake up and talk and talk and talk.

The talking part should have not really been a surprise for him, now that he thought about it. It _was_ Pepper Potts, right? That was what he had known her for all the time they had been together, right? Pepper-_chatterbox_-Potts?

Tony swallowed hard, closed his eyes and increased his grip around her belly. Their legs were tangled together and their left hands were intertwined on her front, and if he forgot about everything else that was happening around them, he could almost imagine them in this position with nothing on; just as they had woken up many mornings after they had been together, including the most recent opportunity they had had on Valentine's Day, and even though that night had been great, the thought of it made Tony frown.

_Pepper's my girlfriend, my fiancée, and I have never given her a proper Valentine's Day celebration._

Then again, and being honest with himself, the opportunity had just not presented itself. The first time they dated, it had been after the Makluan invasion and it had been in May. The next time February had come around, he had been with Maya, getting almost raped by her at a cabin in the woods, and Pepper had been with Scott, skiing her life away in the mountains. The February after that, the holiday had been obscured by Whitney's comeback and his and Pepper's separation. This year, they had been more worried about the baby being in danger, doing recon and moving out of their apartment and into the penthouse than in going out for dinner or at least watching a movie at home. By the time he had realized it was Valentine's Day, the night had already set, and he had caught Pepper thinking about giving up her baby for adoption.

_Maybe next year will be better_. _Maybe next year I can take her out on a trip, just her and me, just like I've been promising her all along._

"Tony?" he heard Pepper mumble again and he opened one eye. "Why is it so dark in here?"

"Because your eyes are closed, baby," he replied and closed his eyes again.

"Are they?" she asked, opened her eyes and then frowned. "OK. Now they're open but it's still dark."

"The lights are off."

"Oh! Yeah! Duh! That makes sense. Wait. Why are the lights off?"

"Because we're supposed to be sleeping, Pep."

"Ah! But… but I'm not… I'm not… even…" she yawned. "Tiiireedddd."

She again fell asleep, but this time it was only for a second. She then opened her eyes once more, stared down at her belly and gasped.

"Tony?"

"Yeah?"

"What is wrong with me?!"

"What do you mean?" he frowned but did not open his eyes.

"My belly is so big! WHY is it so big?"

Tony smirked. "Because you just ate, Pepper."

"What? What the _fuck_ did I eat? A basketball? A watermelon? The entire fridge?"

Tony held back a chuckle and opened his eyes once more. "_Two_, actually. Two watermelons."

"Aw, man!" she whined. "Did I even chew them on their way down? They musta been huge! Don't let me eat like that again!"

"I won't," he said. "But only if you promise you'll sleep."

"But I'm not…" Yawn. "Sleeepyyy."

"There you go," Tony closed his eyes again when Pepper began snoring lightly. After half an hour of quietness, Pepper opened her eyes again. She did not immediately speak, but she did try to stand up, and when she realized she could not move from the bed, she frowned and groaned.

"What is it?" Tony whispered in her ear. "What do you need?"

"I need to get up or I'm going to be late for school," Tony opened his eyes and raised a single eyebrow. She had been confusing where she was and when she was a few times. And if she also confused _who_ she was talking with, it turned out to be very educational for him to hear what she thought about him or other people when she thought she was speaking with someone else.

"It's Spring Break, Pepper."

"Oh! Really? Then I should go visit Tony at the armory and get him out of there. He doesn't know what a vacation is!"

"I'm sure he's fine," he said with a small smile. "He told me he's actually taking a day off, for once."

"He is?" her eyebrows shot up. "That's weird! That doesn't sound like Tony."

"Yeah, well, he does some unexpected things sometimes."

"Ugh," Pepper scoffed. "Tell me about it! I can't believe he's still going out with Whitney! I swear: I can't believe he didn't even tell me about it! I mean, he must know I really like him! How could he do that to me? What. A. JERK!"

Tony swallowed hard.

"Yeah, what a fucking jerk! How could he choose Whitney over you, huh?"

"That's what I said!" the ginger spat. "I mean, yeah, I'm not rich… or that pretty… or, you know, sophisticated enough to know what the heck all that silverware is used for at fancy dinners. And, yeah, I talk a lot, and I dress partly like a boy and… I can't walk in high heels and… and I have freckles… and… my hair is… my hair is… ugh!" she sighed. "Man! Who the hell am I kidding? Tony would NEVER look at me like that! He… he just sees me as his weird friend. Maybe not even a friend… just… just the girl that follows him all over the place – his… his _groupie_."

"I don't think so, Pepper. I think he likes you."

"Well, yeah, he does like me or he wouldn't let me hang around with him but… but he doesn't _like_ like me."

"What makes you think that?"

"Well, for one, he wouldn't be dating Whitney right now. And, for two… well, he-he… he hasn't shown any signs that he may like me any different. He's kind and sweet when he's not all into science mode, but… but that's all there's to it. I'm just Pepper. I'm not, you know, _Pepper_."

"I'm sorry, Pepper," he told her honestly. "I-I… I'm sure he does like you like you do. He… he's just stupid sometimes. I don't think he even likes Whitney that much. He's probably just… you know… keeping her company since her dad is an asshole and she has no one else in the world. I'm sure he's not falling in love with her or anything like that. It's… it's just a fling."

Pepper closed her eyes and tightened her grip on his hand.

"But what if he does fall in love with her? What if he's just being nice about him not liking me by not telling me to my face that he can never see me like I see him?"

"He'll come around, Pepper. He likes you. He really, really likes you."

"How… how do you know?"

"He told me."

Pepper gasped. "R-Really?"

"Yeah," Tony exhaled through his nose. "He's just worried. He's just scared about what it might do to your friendship with him if you guys start dating and it doesn't work out. He doesn't want to lose you."

"Silly Tony!" Pepper giggled. "I haven't left him yet after all the stupid things he's already done and all the lies he's told me. Why would I leave him now?"

Tony remained silent for a moment as he thought about her question and was then reminded that she had in fact at some point walked out of his life for those very same reasons: his stupidity and the lies. He had ended up begging her to return to him, and she had ended up coming back, but that did not make her question any less painful for him. Even now, it still amazed him how their lives were so different now. He was currently talking to the Pepper he had met long ago, but once her medicine high was over and she returned to reality, he would then be speaking with the Pepper that had been forged by the consecutive hard hits of life. The Pepper he was going to marry soon.

"Don't leave him, Pepper," his tone sounded almost imploring. "He'd go nuts. He… he wouldn't know what to do with himself if you're gone."

Pepper laughed, shook her head and then felt her eyes starting to close against her will.

"He'd be fine," she mumbled. "He was fine before he met me. He'd be fine without me again."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that."

"Why?" she yawned. "Why do you say that?"

"Because I know. I just know he wouldn't. I know he wouldn't be fine without you because he loves you."

"Tony doesn't love me," she muttered. "He doesn't love me like that."

"How can you be so sure?"

The redhead yawned again, adjusted her head on the pillow, closed her eyes and then finally replied. "Because if he did… if he did love me… he would've… he would've…"

"He would've, what, Pepper?"

"He-he… he would've… He wouldn't have ever left me at the temple… he would've stayed… he would've… he would've not left me behind… he would've not let Whitney take me away. If he did love me…he would've known that I love him, too."

Tony clenched his eyes shut, hugged her tighter, and when she started her light snore again, he pulled away from her and ran out of the bedroom without looking back. Luckily for him, Pepper did not wake up again until much, much later; their conversation gone from her mind.

xxxXXXxxx

A couple of days later, Tony sat on the floor of their bedroom, by the foot of the bed, with his new laptop and piles of folders and files surrounding him. He was reviewing all of the most recent information he had on the Rhona case, the _Baxter Building_ break-in, the _Pym Industries_ break-in, the crow attack, and the sample of the blood that had been used to write the threat on the baby's mattress. The blood had been identified to be of bird origin, but an unknown substance that the police crime lab had not been able to identify had been found to be mingled with the crow's blood.

Pepper had been right, the crows were not ordinary birds; they had indeed been _rigged_, as she had so eloquently put it for him when she had refused to leave his side.

After reviewing the footage of the attack, and realizing that the moment the words had been written on the mattress had not been recorded due to the crows chewing on the camera wires, Tony had begun wondering if someone had actually broken inside after Pepper had flown them both out of the apartment, only to write that eerie message for them. It was possible and logical, he mused, because last he had checked, birds did not know how to write.

Well, ordinary birds did not. _Mutated_ crows, on the other hand…

The missing pieces of the puzzle made him groan.

Even after extensive review of the scene by the forensics team and the inventor himself, Tony had not been able to find any evidence of anyone else being there at the apartment other than Pepper, Happy and himself. The DNA samples of hair, fingerprints and other fluids, all pointed to the trio being the only recent inhabitants of the place before the incident. Samples of every other friend and family member had also been found, but it was expected of him that DNA of Virgil, Howard, Roberta, Jarvis, Maya, Scott, and even Rhodey's had been found at their former home.

_Former_, Tony thought. _It's not our home anymore._

He had not wanted to move. She had not wanted to move either, but the threat was imminent and risks could not be afforded at this point. They had paid for all the repairs and the fee for breaking their lease early, but the fact remained that moving out of their little apartment to the huge penthouse of their company had been more devastating than just the hindrance of packing up. They had not even done the work themselves; they had hired a moving and packing company to do the work for them, but it had still been sad to leave their first _nest_.

_Or not nest_, Tony shuddered. _We're not birds… we don't do nests… we… ugh… fucking birds…_

Scott had sent over whatever research he had found, but without any more information on the actual motive for the attack, all they had was just noise. Yes, the threat had been made against the baby, but the reason why the baby needed to be disposed of was not clear to them.

The police officers and detectives that had investigated the case had deduced that it had probably been an act of a business competitor, or an angry reporter that wanted to sell a story to the media, or perhaps even some psycho fan that wanted to bring attention to him or herself. Nonetheless, the evidence just did not add up to that for the blue-eyed boy. No one knew the baby was Scott's other than the close members of the group to Team Iron Man, and even if the speculation was that the baby was his, he knew there would be more money in selling stories about the baby for years to come than in a single story reporting the death of the child.

The question remained, however: who would benefit from killing the baby? What reason would anyone have to want the baby dead other than just to inflict pain upon those who cared about him?

In his paranoid state of mind, Tony had gone as far as suspecting Scott to be involved in the assassination attempt, especially when the crows had been found to be mutated, but it did not really make sense once he had thought about it long and hard. Pepper was not asking anything from the jock, and she had not even publicly revealed that he was the father, so unless someone had somehow found a way to run a paternity test on Pepper or someone else had inadvertently revealed the information to someone outside the circle of trust, there was no threat that the baby posed to the former jock.

Besides, he knew that as much as he had once hated Scott, the last thing he wanted to do was hurt the redhead. He was also certain that, if the jock had wanted to do something as atrocious as killing his own son, Professor Xavier or even Jean Grey would have already known about it and would definitely prevent it from happening even before Scott had known about it himself.

But, what about enemies of Scott?

The list was getting longer every time Cyclops revised it, and it was mostly due to the increase in attacks between opposing mutant factions that he and the undercover group of mutants Professor Xavier led had been involved in. Some mutants wanted to be left alone, some mutants wanted to wipe out all humans, some mutants wanted to wipe out _other_ mutants, and some mutants wanted to wipe out _everyone_. The possibilities were extensive, never ending, and would take a lifetime to discern.

_I don't have a lifetime to figure this out. I have a week, tops!_

Then there were their enemies – or_ his_ enemies, actually. Pepper hardly ever made any. Most of them were dead or locked up, and the ones that were on the loose were not this clever – Rhona notwithstanding. In fact, it always came back to Rhona. She had been the only one that had recently threatened their lives, and she even had stated to him that a price was set for their deaths, which lead him to his other unanswered question: who could have set that bounty for them? Who could have enough money and influence to set the price for Team Iron Man's lives?

Justin and Sasha Hammer could have, but they were both dead. Obadiah Stane was still in a coma, and Whitney Stane was still living on the Helicarrier. Count Nefaria was deader than Justin Hammer himself, and Ghost was rotting in hell with a broken neck. The Maggia were gone and the Tong was under orders not to cross paths with Iron Man and stay away from causing harm to anyone. That last part always surprised him since he had been caught in between the crossfire of the Maggia against the Tong more times than he wanted to remember. Now that Gene was in charge of it, it was not unusual to hear that some random, petty crimes had been halted by _ninjas of some sort._

_Maybe AIM?_ Tony considered. _I haven't heard from them for a while._

The last time he had encountered AIM, it had been when Whiplash and the beekeepers had tried to kidnap Dr. Betty Ross during the _Women History_ conference that Pepper had attended herself. After that failed effort, the organization had all but disappeared. As far as he knew, no other attempt at kidnapping the cellular biologist, or any other high-caliber scientist of her kind, had been reported.

_Cellular biologist… biology… mutated crows… controlled crows… Is Basil Sandhurst around? Is he part of this?_

Tony pulled up the S.H.I.E.L.D. database of locked up individuals and, in the blink of an eye, confirmed that the Controller was still making his residence out of the Helicarrier. Then again, the database had also once said that Whitney Stane had been locked up for months, but she had actually been mingling with the students at the Tomorrow Academy for some time.

Knowing that he was going to hear shit from Nick Fury for what he was about to do, but not really caring about it in the end, Tony hacked the surveillance system of the Helicarrier and, one by one, he matched the names of the surviving enemies of his with their current cells. Cell by cell and row by row of records, he went down the list until the present status of all of the criminals he knew of – and some he had never even heard of before – had checked out. Even if in the end he felt a sense of momentary relief, the reality was that he was as empty-handed as he had started out on this search, months ago.

_Dammit it all_, he stretched his neck from side to side. He then stood up from the floor, stretched his arms above his head, yawned and then twisted his body from side to side to pop his back. In one of those movements, his eyes caught the green-colored numbers on the alarm clock on his nightstand behind him and he groaned when he realize it was six in the morning. He had spent the entire night doing recon and he now had to get ready to wake Pepper up and argue with her to force her to eat some type of breakfast.

_Maybe the doctors __**should **__induce the labor_, Tony pondered, remembering Happy' suggestion. _She can't be forced to do this for much longer, and I can't stand seeing her like this. It has to stop._

He sighed loudly again, dropped his arms to his sides and then began walking around the bed to Pepper's side. When he finally reached her and began pulling down the blanket, something unusual made him stop in his tracks.

Even though Pepper's eyes were closed, she was whimpering and breathing hard. Her hands were clutched onto her stomach and her face was contorted into one of utter pain. Her hair and clothes were sticking to her face and body, and after he snapped his fingers twice to turn on the lights in the room, he realized that she was covered in sweat.

"Oh, shit!"

He pulled the blanket completely off her and looked up and down at her entire body several times. He placed a hand on her face and quickly recognized that she was not only sweating but burning up.

His terror quadrupled in a second.

"Pepper? Pepper, wake up!"

He shook her, lightly at first, but then harder when she did not react to his touch or words. He began hyperventilating himself, but he somehow forced his body to remain calm and to stop shaking. Maybe she was just having a reaction to the relaxants. Maybe she had picked up a cold or something… maybe… maybe…

"HAPPY! HAPPYYY!"

After a loud thud, curse words, and a slam of the bedroom door, the jock was standing at the entrance in no time. He had been sleeping in the living room, right outside the master bedroom of the penthouse where Tony and Pepper slept, and the inventor had no doubt that his screams had probably scared the crap out of the disheveled-looking man.

"What is it, Tony? What's wrong?"

"It's Pepper, she-she… something's not right…" Tony said with a gulp as he slowly shifted her body to pick her up in his arms. "Call an ambulance. No… call... Call the doctor. Call the hospital. I'm taking her to the emergency room. Right now!"

"WHAT?" Happy asked but still did as told. He ran to grab Tony's pod on his nightstand and he dialed Dr. Adler's number in a flash. Meanwhile, Tony struggled to get a good grip on the sweating ginger since her skin was extremely hot and slippery, and as he heard Happy tell the OB/GYN what the status of the redhead was, Tony came to the shocking realization that not all of the fluid that was all over Pepper and the bed was mere sweat.

"NO!" Tony screamed, pulled Pepper up with him and began running to the door. "NO! NO!"

"Tony! Wait! What is it?" Happy followed the inventor out into the hall and towards the elevator, both barefoot, jock with phone in hand. Tony was so glad that he no longer needed keys to drive his car as, when he had upgraded it for security purposes, he had swapped the normal ignition system for a fingerprint scanner, which would prove extremely useful for them right now.

"Tony? I said wait up! Dr. Adler wants to know what's wrong! What's happening?"

"Tell her she needs to get her ass to the emergency room right now! That's all she needs to know!"

"Dammit, Tony!" Happy groaned but still followed Tony inside the elevator and pressed the button for the private basement where Tony kept their vehicles. "What the fuck is wrong with Pepper? Did she pass out?"

"No… no…" Tony replied and pressed his face against Pepper's. "It's… it's the baby…" Tony gulped. "The baby is coming. Her water broke... but… but I don't know how long ago it was."

xxxXXXxxx

Iron Man was mad beyond reason and no one had ever seen him act like this; not even S.H.I.E.L.D. and they kept tabs on anything and everyone. He had temporarily turned into the one thing he had fought against his entire superhero life, which made him the biggest hypocrite in the world, but right now he did not give a rat's ass about it. He was not even sure how he was still going on, this long and so aware, after not sleeping or eating anything in the last twenty-four hours. It was probably pure adrenaline, anger and the sense of revenge.

"Answer my fucking question, bitch!" Tony spat before he grabbed Rhona by her neck again and slammed her back against a wall for the twentieth time. "Who wants me and Pepper dead? Who wants the baby dead? TALK or I'll crush your damn throat!"

The Goth girl was too shocked to say anything or even blink. Her eyes were wide and scared, and all she could think of was of how she had never believed that Tony Stark would act so viciously upon anyone. Many times, his enemies had outsmarted him or had threatened him with even worse things, but she had never thought it possible to ever witness the day that Iron Man, that Tony Stark, would be crueler than the worst scum in the world.

"I'm getting tired of waiting," Tony snarled after he retracted his faceplate. "I don't have time to waste!"

And he truly did not have time to waste, but he was not going to tell Rhona _why_ he did not have the time she thought he had. Pepper was in labor at this very moment, a very dangerous birth from what he had gathered from Dr. Ross's initial prognosis, and as soon as the matter had gotten worse for the struggling ginger, he had been forced to leave her side. He had not wanted to, he truly had not wanted to, but when he had found out that Rhona was trying to break into _Stark Solutions_, he just had to leave Pepper behind.

She was not actually alone, he knew, since everyone was already at the hospital, watching over her, and Roberta was in the labor room with her, holding her hand as Tony had been doing himself not long ago. Pepper needed him. The baby needed him. But if he let go of the opportunity to find out the information he needed from Rhona, Pepper and the baby's lives would continue to be in danger until the end of time.

"Why aren't you saying anything? TALK! _TALK_, DAMMIT!"

Tony dropped the girl and let her fall onto the ground with a thud. She immediately curled up into a ball and began sobbing loudly, total panic all over her features. Tony groaned in exasperation and his fists shook in anger. He had not been able to get anything out of the girl and, a few minutes ago, he had had to put a shield around them when Nick Fury had arrived to rain on his parade. It was just as when he had tricked Whitney into revealing herself; only that, this time S.H.I.E.L.D. was not working with him.

"_The mask is permanently disabled, Whitney. Your Madame Masque days are over."_

_ Whitney pressed her fists against the shield and pounded on them with every other word she spoke. _

"_Damn you, Tony Stark! I can't believe I fell for this! I should've known that stupid groupie couldn't have gotten away from where I dumped her body!"_

_ "Where is she, Whitney? Where is Pepper?"_

_ The girl snickered and crossed her arms over her chest. "Dead," she deadpanned._

_ "No, she isn't dead. __**Where**__ is she?" Tony took a step toward the shield and leaned closer to the fake brunette's face._

_ "I just told you, Tony. She's __**dead**__," Whitney responded and emphasized the last word._

_ The eyes of everyone present landed on the boy when he further narrowed his eyes at the prisoner. _

"_I'm going to ask you one last time, Whitney. Where. Is. Pepper."_

_Whitney uncrossed her arms and took a few steps closer to the shield, stood a few inches away from the scientist' face, and stared him directly in his blue eyes._

"_That __**pet**__ of yours is where she belongs: in hell. And there's nothing you can do to bring her back, and nothing you can do to force me to tell you where you can find whatever is left of her broken, bleeding, rotting body. You'll just have to bury in her coffin that picture of her you have in your wallet because there is nothing left of her. Nothing. Absolutely nothing."_

_ Tony's groan was the only warning Whitney received before the shield was taken down, the suit surrounded Tony as he charged at the blonde and pushed her onto the ground, and his armored hands surrounded her neck. He sat on top of her to incapacitate her, and he called upon the shield again to keep anyone from reaching him._

_Tony's grip on the girl was strong enough to cause pain, but not strong enough to kill her. His eyes – although covered by the suit – were filled with rage that was pouring out of him waves. He refused to believe that he was too late. He refused to accept that he had played pretend with Black Widow for an entire week only to find out Pepper was gone. This was not how it was supposed to end. He was supposed to find Pepper and get back together with her._

"_Stop playing games, Whitney. I know you're lying to me. Now, tell me where she is."_

_ "In what language are you hearing me speak, Stark? I got rid of her a long time ago. She died a slow death, just like she deserved for taking you away from me."_

_ "Taking me away from you? Are you insane? You never had me, Whitney! I started dating you because that way I could get access to Stane's secrets through you, and then I dated you because I felt sorry for you! I never cared for you as anything more than a friend!"_

_"A friend?" Whitney spat. "What kind of friend puts a friend's dad in a coma?"_

_ "It wasn't me, and you know it. Your father lost it. He hurt a lot of people. He kidnapped Pepper, and he tried to kill me. I'm not proud that I couldn't stop it, but he asked for what he got."_

_ "Just like that scrawny redhead asked for what she got."_

_ Tony grunted as he lifted Whitney by her neck and slammed her head against the ground. "STOP LYING!"_

_ "I'm NOT lying! Do you want proof? Do you want proof that she's dead?"_

_"Where IS PEPPER?!" He slammed her head against the ground again, this time harder than before, but Whitney did not scream in pain._

_ "DEAD! She is DEAD!"_

_ "NO! Where?" Tony increased his grip on her neck. "Where did you take her?"_

_"It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter anymore, Tony! I had my way with her and she paid for what she did to me. All those times you chose to be with her instead of me, she paid for every single one. And you? You're going to have to live with the guilt that it was because of you that she died. You should've walked away from her when you had the chance. You should've broken up with her when she told you to!"_

Iron Man pushed aside the memory and groaned when he heard Nick Fury's voice in his helmet. _"Are you done torturing that girl, Stark? I told you to let her go. We'll take her in and make her talk."_

"NO!" Tony spat, looked over his shoulder and up to the sky where a Quinjet hovered above them in a private area on _Stark Solutions_ grounds. "She's going to talk now. I don't have time to waste! I need an answer now!"

_"What you need is to fucking calm down and go back to the hospital. Potts needs you there and Rhona will talk tomorrow or the next day. Just leave her there and go before I have to come down there and arrest your rich ass."_

Tony narrowed his eyes. That had been the wrong thing to say to him at this time.

"Arrest me? Just like you tried to arrest Pepper that day during the board meeting? Do you really want to play that card, Nick?"

_"Let it go, Tony. It's been ages. But I __**will**__ send my men down there if you don't stop acting like a mad man!"_

"A mad man? I'm not the mad one!" Tony pointed at Rhona on the ground. "She's the crazy one! _She's_ the one who wants to kill a baby!"

Rhona's eyes looked up at the inventor, tears returning to her eyes when she heard his irritated words and saw him walking up to her again. This time, he grabbed her by the top of her head and pulled her up until her feet dangled in the air. She did not even have the nerve to try to release herself from his tight grip.

"For the last time, Erwin: _Why _did you send those _crows_ to _my_ apartment? WHY?"

"I-I…" she whined. "I don't know what you're talking about. I-I… I didn't send anything to your apartment. I swear!"

"Stop lying!" Tony spat, increased his hold on her head and made the girl whimper in pain. "Who wants us dead? WHO?"

"I don't know who! I don't!"

"LIAR!" Tony said, closed his faceplate and tightened his grasp on her. "WHO? Who is it?"

"I DON'T KNOW! All I know is that there's money involved! I… I didn't even care all that much about the money… all… all I wanted was revenge!"

"Revenge?" Tony scoffed. "You want to talk about revenge? I'll show you revenge!"

_"Stark, stop it!"_

"SHUT UP!"

"Please, no," Rhona begged. "Please, please don't kill me."

"Then tell me who put a hit on us!"

"I swear I don't know! I just got the invitation! I don't know who it is!"

"The… the _invitation_?" Tony was taken aback and, for a second, loosened his clutch on her head. "What invitation?"

"A video… I got a video… It was sent to the institute. The voice… it was distorted… and there was no face… the voice… the voice said that there was a bounty out for your head… and Pepper's… and when the news said she was pregnant, the baby was added to the list… That's all I know. That's ALL I know!"

"Where's the video? Do you still have it?"

"No!" she sobbed. "The instructions said to burn it… so I did…"

Tony's anger returned with that. "Who else is in this group? Who else is out to get me?"

Rhona blinked back a few tears, took in a deep breath and replied. "Everyone… it was sent to everyone."

"Everyone? What do you mean 'everyone'? Who is everyone?"

"Everyone you've ever hurt. Everyone you've ever crossed paths with. And… and you should not even be here. You-you should just let me go. You should be with Pepper because… because the highest bounty is for her head… for her dead, _detached _head."

_ Tony threw the piece of paper onto the back seat and switched gears. He revved up the car a few times as he mapped in his head the location of the hotel he and Pepper had stayed in the last time they had been at the club and, without further ado, he sped his way out of the alley and onto the almost empty streets, not breaking for any traffic signs or stops until he arrived._

_ The piece of paper, now long forgotten somewhere inside the vehicle, which he parked in front of the same room they had booked last time – and only thanks to the money Pepper had made him hide inside his shoe, had incited only one response from the inventor. A response that required the Maggia to do the impossible to counteract it: kill the armored vigilante in cold blood. The message was composed of only twelve words; nothing more, nothing less, but the words were powerful enough to make any of the other men cower in fear. _

_Tony Stark was not any other man._

_The Maggia would never see it coming; they would never see it coming that Iron Man was now on their ass more than before, just because they had dared to do what only an__** idiot**__ would do to him: threaten Pepper Potts._

_NEXT TIME, IT WILL BE HER HEAD AND IT WON'T BE FAKE._

"Her head?" Tony repeated in a somber tone as he retracted the faceplate and he glared at her. "Her… _detached_ head?"

Rhona could only nod and hope that the only information that she had to offer would be enough for Tony to spare her life. Unbeknownst to her, however, she had just said the wrong thing at the wrong time to the wrong man. She now regretted not sending a Rhona-robot lookalike for the break-in. She should have never come herself. She had thought that she could have finished the job tonight, but she had made a mistake, and this mistake could very well cost her her life.

"Her head?" Tony repeated. "You were going to _cut off_ her head?"

"What?"

"You tried to break into my company today… you were looking for Pepper, weren't you? You were planning on removing her head… weren't you?"

"No… no… I… I… no… please…"

"You… you're just like_ everyone_ else… like Ghost… like the Maggia… like Jules… you… you're just like all the rest…"

"Tony, please, stop!" Rhona implored.

_"STARK! That's enough!" _Nick Fury called.

"You are just like all the ones I had to deal with myself," Tony continued, not listening to either one of them.

"No…"

_"Iron Man!"_

"And now…" he tightened his armored clasp on the Goth girl.

_"Stark, stop this!"_

"You're going to be…" Tony began.

"Please, I beg you…"

"As dead…" the inventor paused so that his words sunk in and then spoke again. "As them…"

_"NO!"_

"STOP!"

But he did not stop. He. Did. NOT. Stop. Not until her head exploded under his iron grip like a melon slamming against a concrete wall. Not until her lifeless body stopped jerking. Not until the image of what Rhona Erwin had planned on doing to his fiancée dissipated from his mind. Not until his anger that had clouded his sense of justice and righteousness finally went away.

Not until he was sure that she was dead.

He knew it was dishonorable, criminal even, what he had just done. Especially when he let the body hit the ground and he shook his hand once to remove her blood and brain matter from his armored hand so nonchalantly, as if he had not just taken a life. He knew that what he had done was wrong, just as snapping Ghost's neck, however justified, had been wrong. But he did not care.

He. Did not. Care.

_One down_, Tony thought as he turned around in place, stared at the Quinjet once, and began speeding his way back to the hospital. _Everyone else to go_.

Nick Fury had seen many villains do unspeakable things, but it was always worse when the hero – the one that had saved everyone for years – reduced himself to acting like the men he was trying to stop himself. The Head of S.H.I.E.L.D. had told Tony once that his greatest flaw was that he was incapable of letting bygones be bygones, and the path that Tony was taking was not one Nick wanted to see the boy be involved with.

Then again, perhaps all that anger and strength would be needed soon; very soon, when the real battle S.H.I.E.L.D. was preparing for was finally here. When the lives of the inventor, the ginger and the incoming baby were threatened by an enemy far more ruthless than Rhona Erwin. The enemy that S.H.I.E.L.D. knew had put the price on the heroes' heads.

"Hill," Nick began when he saw Iron Man disappear on the horizon. "Phase three starts now."

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><p><strong>AN:** Epilogue up tomorrow!


	10. Epilogue

**A/N: **Happy B-Day,_ebbs-imagination_! ^_^

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><p><strong>Epilogue<strong>

He held her limp left hand in both of his and pressed his lips against her skin. He had been staring at her still form for hours now, ever since he had returned from killing Rhona and he had been allowed to come inside the room. To anyone who was not privy of her real state, the ginger looked as if she was just sleeping peacefully, with no care in the world, but Tony Stark knew better than that.

"I'm sorry," he said with unshed tears. "I should've been here with you. I should've never left you, Pepper."

He had been holding back his tears for too long, so they were now threatening to drown him alive. Even though a birth was a cause for celebration, he could not force himself to pull away from her bedside to meet the perfectly healthy little guy that had been born hours ago. Even if he had not intended to, even if the baby had not plotted against his mother, the birth had been very complicated and Pepper had almost lost the chance to ever meet him at all.

And he, Tony, had almost lost his fiancée.

He closed his eyes, rested his head on her now flat stomach and inhaled slowly. He remembered the last time he had been like this with her – her unconsciousness body under his head, her hand in his. It seemed like a bad dream now, but he knew very well that it had been true. It had happened, long ago, and when she had woken up from it, she had left him for good. He trusted that, this time, history would not repeat itself.

_Wake up, baby_. _Wake up, I need you._

Dr. Adler had given Pepper a muscle relaxant after the birth so that she could repose, and they had been reducing the dose every hour, but she was yet to even stir at all ever since she had heard the cries of her son after he was born. According to Nurse Owen, Pepper had taken one good look at her son when she had brought him over to the redhead; she had smiled at him and she had then passed out in tiredness almost immediately.

"_She went on for a long time, Tony,"_ Dr. Ross had told the inventor when he had arrived, and the doctor had then added with a smile: _"She's going to need a lot of rest and pampering. I'm sure you can do that for her."_

He could. He would. But only if she woke up. He could not do any of the things he wanted to do for her if she did not wake up.

Tony was growing anxious – fearful – that this time she would not wake up at all even if everyone said that she was doing fine and that she was only asleep and not in a coma. It was overdue for her, actually; one had only so many chances to escape a precarious situation, unscathed. Maybe Pepper had finally reached her limit; maybe her free pass at surviving the unthinkable had finally expired.

"Pepper," he began as he lifted his head from her stomach and then pressed their foreheads together. "Please, open your eyes, Pep. Please, please open your eyes. I just want to know you're alright."

He waited for a minute or so and hoped to hear her voice calling his name, but when all he heard was the door behind him opening and Happy's voice telling him everyone else had already met the baby and that it was his turn, Tony exhaled in defeat.

"She's not going to wake up for a few more hours, you know?" Happy reasoned. "She was pretty tired after being in labor for so long. She needs to rest, and you do too."

"I can't leave, Hap. I need to know she's going to be OK."

"She _IS _going to be OK, Tony. She's going to be just…"

Happy's reassurance became pointless when the redhead groaned in her chemically induced sleep and her head moved slightly to the right. Tony froze where he stood, eyes wide and spirit hopeful, and waited for her to show any other movement that would give him a better indication of how she felt. When her breathing evened out again and the hand that had suddenly tightened around his own went limp once more, he knew that she had fallen asleep again.

"Did you see that?" Happy began. "She's fine. She just needs to sleep it off."

"Pepper?" Tony insisted, as if he had not heard Happy speak. "Pepper, I'm right here. It's me: Tony."

Her soft breathing and the rhythmic rising and lowering of her chest were her only response. Tony sighed, shook his head, kissed the back of her hand, placed it on her stomach and then stood from the chair. His eyes traveled up and down her form, just to make sure that she was still just asleep and not on the verge of death. After he observed her for another long moment, he sighed again, this time in resignation.

"Fine," the genius said before he leaned down at kissed the redhead's forehead. "I'll go meet the baby, but I'm coming back here right after."

"That's fine," Happy agreed. "Let's make it quick. The newborn ward is about to close for the day."

"OK. We'll go right now, then," Tony kissed the crown of Pepper's head and then whispered to her. "I'll be back soon, Pep. I'm just going to meet the baby and I'll be back in a flash."

He walked in reverse to give his fiancée a final glance and, once he reached the door, he turned in place, stared at Happy and followed him out of the room, down the hall, around the corner and to the newborn area where Baby Boy Potts was being kept for now. The walk to the baby ward was quiet, and Tony's eyes did not leave the floor until they reached the small area where all the other newborns were being monitored.

The glass wall was not very long in comparison to the room it held inside, but it served the purpose of providing a view of the little creatures that remained isolated from everyone else while their tiny bodies got ready to face the world. The bottom half of the wall was made of concrete, like the rest of the hospital, and the upper half was made of glass.

Happy and Tony stood by the glass wall. Happy's arms were crossed over his chest and Tony's hands were dug inside his pockets. If he did not know any better, he would have thought that he was not as excited to meet the baby as he actually was, but he just could not bring himself to look excited when Pepper was yet to open her eyes again.

_We should've been here together right now_, the blue-eyed boy thought with sadness. _It should've been the both of us meeting him at the same time._

"Hey, Tony! There he is!"

Tony lifted his eyes to stare at Nurse Owen waving at him before she pointed down at the baby before her and gave Tony a thumbs-up. The gesture brought a smirk to the genius' face than only grew wider once the nurse picked the baby up from the crib and slowly walked closer to the glass wall with the little bundle in her arms. The inventor's eyes landed on the baby's face that looked as tired as Pepper's, and when the baby made a scrunching face in his sleep, he could not help but laugh.

"He's cute, isn't he?" Happy asked with a smile of his own.

"He is," Tony agreed, not able to remove the smile from his face. The baby boy was tiny and his facial features not yet truly defined, but Tony could already see the proof that this was the ginger's baby as it was evident in the light brown/blonde/reddish hair he could already see on his head. It was not as red as Pepper's, and it was not brown like his own, but it was a combination of hair color he had seen on Scott Summers, especially when the sun had hit the jock's hair.

_Yup_, Tony thought with a hint of bitterness, _he is his father's…_

"Hey!" Happy interrupted the inventor's thoughts. "He's opening his eyes!"

The nurse also noticed that the baby was waking up and, even though she prepared for the little boy to scream bloody murder for being so rudely interrupted in his slumber, she was surprised to see that he was as calm as he had been since being born. He slowly blinked his eyes as he looked all around until his eyes landed on the two men standing outside. The baby stared at Happy and at Tony in a perplexed way, and if Tony was not aware that the baby was just, well, a baby, he could have sworn that he was studying them as if they were specimens of another species. Then again, Tony did not have much time to dwell on the inquisitive stare when something other than the appearance of confusion on the baby's face caught the billionaire's attention.

"Wow!" Tony said with surprise. He pulled his hands out of his pockets and rested his palms on the glass wall to get a better look at the baby. Nurse Owen noticed the inventor's attempt at getting as close as he could to the baby, so she took the last two steps needed to stand right in front of the window so that Tony could be inches away from the baby boy.

"Look at those baby blues, Happy!"

"I know," Happy said as he stared at Tony from the corner of his eye. "Look familiar, don't they?"

"Yeah," Tony chuckled. "He's got Virgil's eyes!" Tony added, but then shook his head at his own comment when he remembered a very important piece of information he had seen in one of the pregnancy books he had read.

"Wait, that's stupid. All babies are born with blue eyes until melanin sets in."

"Maybe," Happy shrugged. "But even if they didn't, those can't be Virgil's eyes. Pepper's adopted."

"Oh," Tony's furrowed his brow and scoffed at his own foolishness. "You're right. I always forget that part. Still, those are some freaking, bright blue eyes this kiddo has!"

"Yeah," Happy continued. "He's got his father's eyes."

It took Tony a second to repeat Happy's words in his mind, and when he did, his brow knitted even more.

"His father's eyes? I thought Scott had brown eyes."

"He does," Happy replied without missing a beat.

"Then, why did you say that he… has… his…"

His voice died on him.

Air left his lungs.

His heart halted.

His eyes opened wide.

The world stopped.

And Tony Stark finally understood what Happy had just implied with his words. What Happy Hogan himself already knew.

The baby's _electric_ blue eyes stared back at the genius, as if understanding what had just transpired, and as the inventor's eyes lost focus on the baby's form until it was only his own reflection he saw in the glass, he was hit with the realization that the little pair of eyes currently staring at him through the glass wall, the ones he had just seen on the baby boy, were a mirror image of his very own eyes staring back at himself in shock.

**The End**

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><p><strong>AN:** You're welcome. ^_^


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